Small agaric, growing on litter or wood, with a rusty brown spore print. Pileus yellow to brown, not viscid, not hygrophanous. Lamellae adnate or adnexed. Stipe lateral or excentric. Partial veil remnants a ring zone or membranous annulus. Spores orange-brown, smooth; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present. Lamellar trama regular. Pileipellis a cutis or trichoderm with branched terminal elements. Clamp connections present.

Among genera with an excentric to lateral stipe and rusty-brown spore print that grow on wood, Pleuroflammula praestans is distinct due to the combination of a dry, non-translucent-striate pileus, a partial veil and smooth spores. In addition, fragments of lamellae mounted in 3% KOH release yellow pigment. Gymnopilus has rough spores, and its fruit-bodies are often large. Smooth-spored species of Galerina have a hygrophanous, translucent-striate pileus that lacks scales. In Pholiota the pileus is viscid or glutinous and the spores have a germ pore. Pleuroflammula praestans is distinguished from smooth-spored species of Crepidotus by the presence of a veil that leaves an annulus or ring-zone.

Pleuroflammula Singer, in Singer & Smith, Mycologia 38: 521 (1946).

One species: Pleuroflammula praestans.

Pleuroflammula praestans E.Horak, Persoonia 9: 445 (1978).

W.A., S.A. (and possibly also in eastern states).

In native forests.

On litter or wood.

Saprotrophic.

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 P. praestans]

Bougher, N. (2011), Perth urban bushland fungi team, Perth fungi in 2010, Fungimap Newslett. 42: 14–15. [Illustration of P. praestans]

Horak, E. (1978b), Pleuroflammula, Persoonia 9: 439–451. [Key, Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of ten species of Pleuroflammula including New Zealand collections of P. praestans]