This feature deals with characteristics of the surface of the pileus itself, rather than any coverings such as hairs or scales, for which see Pileus surface (hairs or scales). Some of the features, such as cracking, are more pronounced on older fruit-bodies, but do not record this feature from over-mature specimens (where the pileus has started to shrivel or decay).

Choose this state if: the outermost surface of the pileus is split by radial cracks to form thinner bands of surface tissue radiating from the centre. The pileus surface is often coarsely fibrillose, with the fibres readily visible, and the radial bands of tissue composed of aggregates of more or less parallel fibres. The splits are not right through the pileus surface and context (or through into the lamellae as in Pileus splitting through lamellae trama), but only through the outermost fibrous layer of the pileus surface.