Small to large agaric, growing on wood or litter (rarely on the ground) with rusty brown spore print. Pileus yellow, orange, brown or red, rarely green or purple, not viscid, rarely translucent-striate or hygrophanous. Lamellae adnexed, adnate, sinuate or notched or subdecurrent. Stipe central, excentric or rarely lateral. Partial veil remnants a ring zone or absent, or rarely a membranous annulus. Spores yellow-brown or reddish brown, rarely pale, warty or rarely reticulate; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present, often with a capitate apex. Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a cutis, rarely a trichoderm. Clamp connections present.

Among genera with a rusty brown spore print, the warty spores are also found in Cortinarius (which never grow on wood, and very rarely have differentiated cystidia) and Galerina (which often lacks veil remnants and has a pileus that is strongly translucent-striate and hygrophanous, and spores that usually have a well-developed plage). Spores are rarely warty in Tubaria (which typically grows on litter and mulch rather than wood and has a hygrophanous pileus). The capitate cheilocystidia that are frequently found in Gymnopilus otherwise occur in brown-spored genera such as Conocybe and Pholiotina (where spores are smooth and the pileus is a hymeniderm), Descolea (which grows usually on the ground and has a membranous annulus and hymeniderm pileipellis), Galerina (where spores almost always have a plage or are smooth) and Phaeocollybia (which grows on the ground and has a pseudorhiza). The few species that have a lateral stipe differ from Crepidotus (which can have warty spores) by the more robust fruit-bodies, often with the stipe initially central to excentric, and the presence of capitate cheilocystidia.

Gymnopilus P.Karst., Bidrag Kännedom Finlands Natur Folk 32 [Ryssl. Hattsvamp. 1]: 21, 400 (1879).

Pyrrhoglossum Singer.

About 25 species: Gymnopilus allantopus (= G. austrosapineus), G. austropicreus, G. brevipes (on the ground), G. corticophilus, G. crociphyllus, G. dilepis, G. eucalyptorum, G. ferruginosus, G. junonius (= G. pampeanus), G. karrara, G. konkinyerius, G. marginatus, G. megasporus, G. moabus, G. norfolkensis, G. parrumbalus, G. parvisporus, G. patriae, G. perplexus (= Galerina eucalyptorum), G. purpuratus (= G. mullaunius), G. pyrrhus (= Pyrrhoglossum), G. tasmanicus, G. tomentosulus and G. tyallus. Also some poorly known species such as G. avellanus, G. baileyi and G. primulinus. Pyrrhoglossum ferruginosum also belongs in Gymnopilus.

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

In native forests and in plantations, parks and gardens.

On wood or litter (most often sticks rather than leaves), very rarely on the ground (and then usually attached to buried wood or around the base of trees or stumps).

Saprotrophic (white rot).

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 G. allantopus]

Bougher, N.L. & Syme, K. (1998), Fungi of Southern Australia. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of G. allantopus (as G. austrosapineus)]

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of G. allantopus, G. dilepis, G. junonius and G. penetrans (this species not confirmed from Australia)]

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

Grey, P. & Grey, E. (2005), Fungi Down Under. Fungimap, South Yarra. [Description, Illustration and Map for G. junonius]

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. [Key to eleven South Australian species, and Description and Microcharacters of the species, along with B&W Illustration of G. eucalyptorum]

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 G. cf. ferruginosus, G. junonius and Pyrrhoglossum ferruginosum (as 'ferruginatum')]

Horak, E. (1988a), On some extraordinary species of Galerina Earle from New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia, with annotations to related South American taxa, Sydowia 40: 65–80. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of G. perplexus (as Galerina eucalyptorum)]

McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of G. allantopus and G. pampeanus, as well as several unidentified species]

Rees, B.J. & Lepp, H. (2000), A new species of Gymnopilus from Norfolk Island, Australas. Mycol. 19: 36–40. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of G. norfolkensis]

Rees, B.J. & Strid, A. (2001), Relationships between Australian and northern hemisphere Gymnopilus species. 1: new species and common misconceptions regarding earlier names, Australas. Mycol. 20: 29–48. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of G. allantopus, G. austropicreus, G. crociphyllus, G. ferruginosus and G. junonius]

Rees, B.J. & Taeker, F. (1999), Profiles of fungi. 107. Pyrrhoglossum pyrrhum, Mycologist 13: 133–134 [Description and Illustration of G. pyrrhum (as Pyrrhoglossum)]

Rees, B.J. & Wood, A.E. (1999), Profiles of fungi. 105. Galerina eucalyptorum, Mycologist 13: 132 [Description and Illustration of G. perplexus (as Galerina eucalyptorum)]

Rees, B.J. & Ye, J.L. (1999), Pyrrhoglossum and the small-spored species of Gymnopilus (Cortinariaceae) in eastern Australia, Austral. Syst. Bot. 12: 255–270 [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of G. marginatus, G. parvisporus, G. patriae and G. pyrrhus (as Pyrrhoglossum)]

Rees, B.J., Marchant, A. & Zuccarello, G.C. (2004), A tale of two species - possible origins of red to purple-coloured Gymnopilus species in Europe, Australas. Mycol. 22: 57–72. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of G. dilepis and G. purpuratus, and Illustration of G. norfolkensis]

Rees, B.J., Orlovich, D.A. & Marks, P.B.D. (1999), Treading the fine line between small-statured Gymnopilus and excentrically stipitate Galerina species in Australia, Mycol. Res. 103: 427–442. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of G. corticophilus, G. eucalyptorum, G. moabus, G. perplexus (as Galerina eucalyptorum), G. tasmanicus, G. tomentosulus and G. tyallus]

Young, A.M. (2005b), A Field Guide to the Fungi of Australia. University of New South Wales Press, Sydney. [Description and Illustration of G. junonius]