I don't think so, Frog. It has several of the characters of an Armillaria sp. And you know how variable they can be. The annulus, the little scales on the cap, the colour, the shaggyish stipe...they all scream Armillaria to me, despite the rather conical cap shape .
Sorry, I have to disagree; that is not a cystoderma. Having seen C. fallax and C. granulosum on more than one occasion, the cap is totally wrong in the photo from the original poster. Cystodermas are, well, granulous, while that one clearly has scales, fine and sparse though they may be. I have 'borrowed' a photo from my hubby of C. fallax for comparison.
Having worked all summer on insect photos for a book, I'm sort of regretting that I've chosen my next photo endeavor to be mushrooms and lichens. I can see that this is a whole different ball game. The insects were so cut-and-dried but mushrooms are a huge challenge. What makes this so difficult? I've bought several books and, in many cases, they all look so similar that I feel at a loss. Maybe I should pursue another topic <:( ...or just forget about naming them (sadly) and take photos only.
I forgot to mention that I had to email Michael Kuo (from www.mushroomexpert.com) about the mushroom in question here. He suggested the ID I posted and included http://www.mushroomexpert.com/leratiomyces_squamosus_thraustus.html. There are a handful of good photographers that can ID the tough mushrooms. I'm going to have to suggest you keep at it because we could really use another one. There are lots of bad photographers that can ID fairly well (i consider myself in this category), so when we go to describe a mushroom we put up a crappy picture of it for everyone else to learn from. You see the predicament - please keep at it.
Well, Cystoderma and Armillaria have white spores and Leratiomyces has dark spores, so, Hudakore, would perchance any of your other photos of this specimen show any clues to spore colour (on stem eg. or elsewhere)? Thanks Stilbella :-) Thanks for bringing up Leratiomyces MycoRob, it's a genus new to me. Hudakore, although fungi definitely have a deserved reputation for being challenging to ID, so do insects and bugs, so if you had success there, I don't see why not here. Ultimately, I foresee you needing to drop a few species/photos from your book, even if you have splendid photos for them, as some will not be possible to ID to species with certainty from just a photo. cheers, frog
I see a similarity to a stropharia stipe, definitely. It would be nice to know the spore colour, but no matter. There's always next time. :)