Coltricia cinnamomea

Pileus
Cap 1.0-5.0 cm broad, shallowly to strongly infundibuliform, sometimes merely plano-depressed or umbilicate; margin at maturity deflexed, wavy, thin, entire to eroded; when young, growing around and incorporating twigs and debris; surface reddish-brown, rust-brown, to chestnut-brown, usually faintly-zonate, velutinate at the disc, elsewhere silky to coarsely, appressed fibrils, if the former, then somewhat shiny in appearance; context thin, 0.5-2.0 mm thick, colored like the cap surface, blackish with 3% KOH; odor and taste untried.

Hymenophore
Pore layer adnate to subdecurrent, cinnamon-brown to tan; pores 2-3/mm, elongate at first, angular and t\hin-walled in age; tubes 1-2 mm deep, concolorous with the pore surface.

Stipe
Stipe 1.0-3.0 (4.0) cm long, 1.0-3.0 mm thick, central, round to compressed, solid, equal except enlarged at the base, the latter frequently fused with adjacent fruiting bodies; surface finely velutinous, rust-brown to dull orange-brown; context leathery when fresh, rigid at maturity, colored like the stipe surface.

Spores
Spores 6.5-8.5 x 4.5-5.0 µm, elliptical to oblong-elliptical, smooth, thin-walled, inequilateral, slightly bean-shaped in profile, hilar appendage inconspicuous, a single guttule usually present, weakly dextrinoid in Melzer's reagent; spore deposit not seen.

Habitat
Scattered, gregarious, to cespitose, in soil and humus in mixed or conifer woods; fruiting winter and spring along the coast; if present in the Sierra Nevada mountains, uncommon.

Edibility
Inedible, leathery.

Comments
This terrestrial polypore occurs commonly in the San Francisco Bay area under Monterey pines (Pinus radiatus). It is recognized by rusty-brown, often clustered fruiting bodies. The caps are usually faintly-zoned cap with appressed fibrils, in certain light sometimes appear to glisten. Coltricia perennis, found in the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere, differs in having a more distinctly-zoned cap, and a matted-tomentose surface. Compared to Coltricia cinnamomea, the cap colors are more muted--cinnamon-brown, tan, ochre to greyish. Additionally the tube layer of Coltricia perennis tends to be more decurrent than in C. cinnamomea. For look-alikes, see "Comments" under Coltricia perennis