Recognized by sight: Young specimen dark cinnamon brown, cap about 2" diameter, peeling off easily from center to 1/2 diameter, slightly viscid when moist, not slimy, smell distinctive, farinaceous, cucumber-like, taste cucumber-like, slowly and slightly acrid and hot, gills close, adnexed, not forking, cap and stem and firm, almost rubbery (like a shitake) but snap and break easily, flesh not changing color when cut, older specimen about 3" cap, dark brown with hint of sepia tone, dry, flat, with central depression, slightly wavy, cracked, wrinkled, hygrophanous, radially fibrillose, margin slightly inrolled