Small to large agaric, growing on litter, mulch or wood, or rarely on the ground or among bryophytes, with a pinkish brown spore print. Pileus white, pale, yellow, brown, grey or black, dry or moist, rarely viscid. Lamellae free or rarely adnexed. Stipe central. Partial veil remnants absent. Volva absent. Spores pale, non-amyloid, smooth; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present. Lamellar trama inverse. Pileipellis a cutis, a trichoderm or a hymeniderm. Clamp connections present or absent.

Entoloma has the same pinkish brown spore print, but only very rarely combines free lamellae and growth on wood or litter (and then it can be distinguished by the angular spores). Two other genera with a pinkish brown spore print and free lamellae, Volvariella and Macrocystidia, differ in the presence of a distinct basal volva in the former and a pruinose to velvety surface to the pileus and stipe in the latter. In Rhodocollybia, the lamellae can be free and the spore print pinkish, but the spores are dextrinoid. Microscopically, some species of Pluteus have very distinctive thick-walled hymenial cystidia with apical horns (cornuate).

Pluteus Fr., Fl. Scan. 338 (1836).

Ten species: Pluteus atromarginatus (dark brown pileus and dark lamellar edge), P. cervinus (brown pileus, lamellar edge concolorous), P. pauperculus (= P. flammipes var. depauperatus, bright orange stipe base), P. pellitus (pileus and stipe white), P. perroseus (brown pileus, pink stipe with brown fibrils), P. petasatus (pileus pale brown, stipe white), P. romellii (= P. lutescens; brown pileus and yellow stipe; pileipellis a hymeniderm), P. villosus (similar to cervinus but with small scales on the pileus) and an as yet unnamed species, Pluteus sp. 'yellow' (yellow pileus and stipe; pileipellis a cutis or trichoderm). Also several species known only from their type specimens: P. melanurus, P. muscorum and P. wehlianus.

NOTE IN PROOF: Pluteus aff. fenzlii, which is unusual in having a distinct annulus, has recently been reported from Queensland (Prance, 2013).

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

In native forests and in parks and gardens.

On wood or among litter and mulch.

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. pauperculus and P. petasatus]

Bougher, N.L. (2011), New records of fungi and slime moulds at Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia, W. Austral. Naturalist 28: 24–42. [Illustration of P. perroseus]

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

Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (eds) (1995), Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 4. Agarics 2nd part. Edition Mykologia, Lucerne. [Description, Microcharacters and Illustration of P. cervinus and P. romellii from Europe]

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of P. atromarginatus, P. cervinus and P. romellii (as P. lutescens)]

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 P. cervinus, P. muscorum and P. nanus (but more likely is P. romellii due to yellow stipe), along with Illustration of P. cervinus and Key to South Australian species]

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 P. aff. cervinus]

Horak, E. (1983a), Mycogeography in the South Pacific region: Agaricales, Boletales, Austral. J. Bot., Suppl. Ser. 10: 1–41. [Description and Microcharacters of P. pauperculus (as P. flammipes var. depauperatus) and P. perroseus]

Horak, E. (2008), Agaricales of New Zealand. 1: Pluteaceae (Pluteus, Volvariella); Entolomataceae (Claudopus, Clitopilus, Entoloma, Pouzarella, Rhodocybe, Richoniella). Fungi of New Zealand Volume 5. Fungal Diversity Research Series 19. Fungal Diversity Press, Hong Kong. [Description, B&W Illustration, Microcharacters and Key for P. pauperculus and New Zealand collections of P. perroseus]

Hubregtse, J. & Hubregtse, V. (2011), Preliminary observations on an undescribed yellow Pluteus species, Vict. Naturalist 128: 111–115. [Illustration, Description and Microcharacters of Pluteus sp. 'yellow']

McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of P. atromarginatus, P. cervinus and P. lutescens, and an unidentifed species]

Orton, P.D. (1986), British Fungus Flora. Agarics and Boleti. 4 / Pluteaceae: Pluteus & Volvariella. Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of P. atromarginatus, P. cervinus, P. pellitus, P. romellii and P. villosus]

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 P. aff. atromarginatus and P. cervinus]

Prance, M. (2013), Mt. Cordeaux Foray, 16 Feb. 2013, Queensland Mycol. 8(1): 7-9 [Illustration of P. aff. fenzlii]