About this fungus
Velvet Rollrim is a fungus in the Tapinellaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A large, tough mushroom growing from conifer wood, often with an irregular shell-like or offset cap. Its most distinctive feature is the thick off-centre stem, densely covered in dark brown to almost black velvet.
What to check
Look for a finely felty golden-brown to orange-brown cap with a wavy, scalloped and inrolled margin. The crowded creamy-yellow gills run deeply down the stem, can be peeled away as a layer and brown with age. The short, thick stem is dark and conspicuously velvety, with no ring or volva. The spore print is yellowish brown to brown.
Variation
Young caps may be golden or orange-brown and strongly inrolled. They expand to broad, irregular brown caps with darker patches. The stem can range from grey-brown to blackish, but retains its dense velvety covering.
Lookalikes
Brown Rollrim, Paxillus involutus, grows from soil rather than directly from conifer wood, is generally smaller and has a fibrous stem rather than the thick dark velvet of this species. Other Tapinella can grow on wood, but the combination of a large cap and robust blackish velvety stem is distinctive.
Habitat and range
Saprotrophic on dead conifer wood, especially pine stumps, roots and decaying logs, and occasionally other conifers. It causes brown rot and may appear alone, in small groups or in overlapping clusters from summer into autumn across Europe, northern Asia and northern North America.
Food safety
Inedible.