Small to large agaric, growing on litter or mulch, wood, or rarely on the ground or bryophytes, with a pinkish brown, rusty to ochre-brown, clay-brown or dark brown spore print. Pileus white, pale, yellow, brown or grey, not viscid. Lamellae adnexed, adnate or decurrent. Stipe absent or lateral, rarely excentric. Partial veil remnants absent. Spores varying from globose to cylindrical, pale or yellow-brown, rarely hyaline, warty or spinose; plage absent; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present. Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a cutis or trichoderm, rarely a hymeniderm (in C. improvisus only). Clamp connections present, rarely absent.

Few agarics have a coloured spore print, a stipe that is lateral or absent and warty or spinose spores. Clitopilus morphogroup Rhodocybe occasionally has a lateral stipe, but the spore print is pinkish and the spores are angular in end view. A few species of Galerina have an eccentric to almost lateral stipe, but the spores have a plage, the cheilocystidia are capitate, and the genus has a rusty brown spore print. A lateral stipe is also rarely present in Gymnopilus, which also has a rusty spore print, but in this genus there is a strong reaction to KOH on the pileus, and the cheilocystidia are frequently capitate. Fruit-bodies of Crepidotus are often rather watery and soft in texture, and are usually rather dull brown or pale in colour. A few species, like Crepidotus variabilis can have very pale or pinkish lamellae, but then the spore print is brown, rather than pinkish brown as in Clitopilus (other) and Entoloma subgenus Claudopus, which are also distinguished by the non-warted and angular spores (in end view only in Clitopilus (other)). For other agarics with similar macro-morphology, but smooth spores, see under Crepidotus (smooth spores).

Six species: Crepidotus applanatus, C. cesatii (= C. sphaerosporus), C. improvisus (= Phialocybe), C. nephrodes (= C. globiger), C. parietalis and C. variabilis. Also several poorly known species described from Australia in the 19th century, such as C. leptomorphus and C. stromaticus. Crepidotus salmonicolor (originally described from N.S.W., with pink pileus) is another poorly known species. It is a possible synonym of C. boninensis. Members of the C. episphaeria group, with yellow pileus and crystal-capped cheilocystidia, such as the New Zealand C. parietalis (Horak, 1977), are also likely to occur in Australia.

The smooth-spored species of Crepidotus are keyed out separately.

W.A., S.A., Qld, N.S.W., Vic. and Tas. (and probably also N.T.).

In native forests.

On wood or litter, very rarely on the ground or among bryophytes.

Saprotrophic.

Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (2000), Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 5. Agarics. Part 3. Cortinariaceae. Edition Mykologia, Lucerne. [Illustration, Description and Microcharacters of C. applanatus, C. cesati and C. variabilis]

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of C. nephrodes and C. variabilis]

Fuhrer, B. & Robinson, R. (1992), Rainforest Fungi of Tasmania and South-east Australia. CSIRO Press, East Melbourne. [Illustration of C. applanatus and C. variabilis]

Grgurinovic, C.A. (1997a), Larger Fungi of South Australia. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium and The Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee, Adelaide. [Description and Microcharacters of C. nephrodes and C. cesatii (as C. sphaerosporus)]

Hood, I.A. (2003), An Introduction to Fungi on Wood in Queensland. University of New England, School of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resources Management, Armidale. [Description and B&W Illustration of C. nephrodes]

Horak, E. (1977a), Crepidotus episphaeria and related species from the Southern Hemisphere, Ber. Schwiez. Bot. Ges. 87: 227–235. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of C. parietalis from New Zealand]

Horak, E. (1983a), Mycogeography in the South Pacific region: Agaricales, Boletales, Austral. J. Bot., Suppl. Ser. 10: 1–41. [Description and Microcharacters of C. improvisus (as Phialocybe)]

Horak, E. & Desjardin, D.E. (2004), Two remarkable new taxa of Crepidotus from Bonin Islands (Japan) and new recrods from the Hawaiian Islands and Papua New Guinea, Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 89: 61–70. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of C. boninensis from Japan, New Guinea and Hawaii]

McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of C. variabilis]

Nordstein, S. (1990), The Genus Crepidotus (Basidiomycotina, Agaricales) in Norway. Fungiflora, Oslo. [Description and Microcharacters of C. applanatus, C. cesatii and C. variabilis]

Pegler, D.N. (1977), A preliminary agaric flora of East Africa, Kew Bull., Addit. Ser. 6: 1–615. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of C. nephrodes]

Senn-Irlet, B. (1995), The genus Crepidotus (Fr.) Staude in Europe, Persoonia 16: 1–80. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of C. applanatus, C. cesatii and C. variabilis, and Key to European species]

Singer, R. (1973), The genera Marasmiellus, Crepidotus and Simocybe in the Neotropics, Beih. Nova Hedwigia 44: 1–517. [Description and Microcharacters of C. nephrodes, and Key to Neotropical species]

Young, A.M. (2005b), A Field Guide to the Fungi of Australia. University of New South Wales Press, Sydney. [B&W Illustration of C. nephrodes]