This is a yellow-brown mushroom with a dry cap that is 1 to 4 inches across, tightly convex at first, then flat to funnel-shaped. Distinct scales resembling tiny, stubble-like hairs tend to grow toward the cap's center.

Whitish gills under the caps have some space between each other. These gills stain pinkish to brownish, and run down the stem slightly.

The spore print is white.

The off-white to beige, fibrous stalk, which tapers toward the base, is 3 to 8 inches long and 1/4 to 5/8 inch thick. Unlike the very similar edible honey mushroom, there's no ring.

This mushroom lives on living trees and dead wood. In the late summer and fall, large clusters of mushrooms, connected at their bases, grow at the foot of living or dead trees or stumps, especially oaks, or over buried wood, throughout eastern and central North America.

Don't confuse this mushroom with the poisonous Jack O'Lantern, a larger orange mushroom with gills crowded together; or the hallucinogenic big laughing gym (Gymnopilus spectabilis), another orange mushroom lacking the hair on the cap.

This is the first wild mushroom I identified on my own and ate, after finding bagfuls on and around a stump in Forest Park, Queens, NY in 1981. It made me quite nervous, checking the features in mushroom guides over and over again, before I finally cooked it. I was quite happy to wake up alive the next morning!

Sauté these excellent mushrooms, pickle them, or include them in soups, stews, or casseroles. They have a rich, penetrating flavor.

The stems are somewhat gritty, so some people discard them, but they're fine in soups and sauces that you puree after cooking.

Cook this mushroom at least 15 minutes or you may become sick, and eat a small amount the first time — they don't agree with everyone.

The closest commercial substitute is the shiitake mushroom.