Lamellar trama pattern is assessed on a cross section of a lamella running from the edge to the top, at right angles to the edge. The section must be quite thin so as to clearly discern the orientation of the tramal hyphae. The arrangement of hyphae may vary with the age of the fruit-body and with the position of the section along the lamellae (whether near the edge or the top).

The hyphae immediately below the basidia may form a distinctive layer (the subhymenium), usually of much shorter hyphae, which is not considered when describing the overall pattern of the lamellar trama.

Where there is a mixture of swollen and cylindrical elements in the trama (as in Russula), which is described as an intermixed trama, assess the overall arrangement, which is normally irregular. See also Lamellar trama (direction). The four options under pattern are usually applied when the tramal hyphae are descending. If the tramal hyphae are radiate, choose the irregular pattern.

Choose this state if: within the trama there are two lateral strata in which hyphae extend at an angle to the mid-line of the lamella trama. This angle is acute in respect of a line running along the mid-line of the lamella from top to edge (that is, the position of the end of each of the lateral hyphae in respect of the mid-line is closer to the top of the lamellae than the position in respect of the subhymenium). In a cross section of the lamellae viewed with the edge at the bottom of the section, the trama forms an inverted V-shaped pattern. There is usually a mediostratum, one or more hyphae in width, running along the mid-line, or occasionally a mediostratum is lacking. The width and shape of hyphae of the lateral strata may be the same as or markedly different from the hyphae of the mediostratum. A bilateral trama may become more evident with age of the fruit-body (especially in Amanita, where the trama is regular in the primordium but becomes bilateral and remains so), or may be less obvious in mature fruit-bodies (as in Phylloporus where it is divergent in the primordium but becomes regular to subregular in aged fruit-bodies).

This type of pattern is also known as divergent. Compare to inverse.