Cap at first globose to hemispheric, expanding to nearly plane, 4.0-7.0 (9.0) cm broad at maturity; margin incurved, then decurved, plicate-striate, soon lacerate, in age either recurved or deflexed; cap disc covered by a felty, pallid to buff-brown, stellate universal veil patch, often encrusted with sand or debris; cuticle pallid, thin, torn by expansion into radially arranged whisp-like fibrils; context membranous, blackish, plicate; odor pleasant, of mushrooms; taste untried.