Small to medium agaric, growing on the ground, or sometimes on litter or wood, with a rusty to ochre-brown or clay-brown spore print. Pileus orange or brown, not viscid. Lamellae almost free, adnexed, adnate, sinuate or subdecurrent. Stipe central. Partial veil remnants a membranous annulus, striate above. Spores pale or yellow-brown, warty; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present or rarely absent. Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a hymeniderm or an epithelium. Clamp connections present.

Annulate species of Agrocybe and Pholiotina (both with a hymenidermal pileipellis) have smooth spores, and the cheilocystidia can be capitate. Annulate species of genera with warty, yellow-brown spores, such as Cortinarius morphogroup Rozites, Gymnopilus and Hebeloma, are often larger, and the pileipellis is a cutis or trichoderm. In addition, Gymnopilus often has capitate cheilocystidia, and in Hebeloma the pileus is viscid. In Galerina the spores have a plage. Tubaria can be similar in stature, but the spores are smooth (as in T. rufofulva) or if warty (as rarely in extra-Australian species), it can be distinguished by the pileipellis that is a cutis or trichoderm.

Descolea Singer, Lilloa 23: 256 (1950).

Several species: Descolea maculata (spores finely ornamented) and D. recedens (spores coarsely ornamented), both with an ochre annulus; and D. phlebophora, from under Nothofagus, with a white or cream annulus.

The New Zealand species Descolea gunnii has been reported from Tasmania (as Gymnoglossum), but the particular collection more likely belongs to one of the truffle-like genera.

Setchelliogaster tenuipes is very similar to Descolea but no spore print is produced. Fruit-bodies are truffle-like and partially buried and the lamellae vary from normally-formed to labyrinthine.

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

In native forests, including cool-temperate rainforest (with Nothofagus).

On the ground, but also occasionally on litter or old rotting wood.

Ectomycorrhizal.

Bougher, N.L. (2009a), Fungi of the Perth region and beyond: a self-managed field book, Western Australian Naturalists' Club (Inc.), Perth. [Description and Illustration of D. maculata and see also Setchelliogaster tenuipes]

Bougher, N.L. & Syme, K. (1998), Fungi of Southern Australia. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of D. maculata and Description and B&W Illustration of D. phlebophora]

Bougher, N.L. & Malajczuk, N. (1985), A new species of Descolea (Agaricales) from Western Australia, and aspects of its ectomycorrhizal status, Austral. J. Bot. 33: 619–627. [B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of D. maculata]

Brundrett, M., Bougher, N., Dell, B., Grove, T. & Malajczuk, N. (1996), Working with Mycorrhizas in Forestry and Agriculture. ACIAR Monograph 32. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra. [Illustration of D. phlebophora and Descolea sp.]

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of D. recedens and see also Setchelliogaster tenuipes]

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

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, Illustration and Microcharacters of D. recedens]

Grgurinovic, C.A. & Mallett, K. (eds) (1996), Fungi of Australia, Volume 1A. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. [Illustration of D. recedens]

Horak, E. (1971), Studies on the genus Descolea Sing., Persoonia 6: 231–248. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of D. phlebophora and D. recedens, and Key to the species of Descolea]

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

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