Hypholoma marginatum, also known as Snakeskin Brownie, is a smallish agaric with a usually tan cap whose colour is very variable and, therefore, cannot be used effectively as an identification feature. That's however hardly a problem because the snakeskin patterning on the stem is so distinctive. It grows in small trooping groups on needles or rotting wood with coniferous trees.

Cap convex, flattening out at maturity but retaining a shallow umbo; inrolled margin of young caps is covered with silky remnants of the partial veil; colour rather variable but most often brick red in the centre and paler towards the margin. Gills at first pallid yellow, then olivaceous-brown, adnate or emarginate, crowded. Spores chocolate-brown. Stem silvery mottled appearance, fibrous; light ochre at apex, darkening progressively to a reddish-brown base; a faint ring zone is usually discernable.

Hypholoma marginatum on the www.first-nature.com web site.