Xerula  furfuracea

(Image from MycoAlbum CD by George Barron see www.mycographics.com )

Commonly growing from dead wood and fruits on hardwood stumps or from buried roots close to stumps.  This handsome mushroom has chalk white gills.

Caps are 3-15 cm across, slippery when wet, smooth to radially wrinkled, broadly convex, knobbed, and smoky to grey-brown or yellow-brown. Gills are attached, broad, well-spaced, and chalk white. Stalks are up to 25 cm tall by 1.5 cm broad, brittle, smooth to powdery, brown, paler near apex, with a long, black, root-like extension. Spore prints are  white. Widespread and very common, it fruits on or near old stumps. Edible.