Clitocybe glacialis Redhead, Ammirati, Norvell & Seidl
Mycotaxon 76: 323. 2000.

Common Name: none

Synonym: Lyophyllum montanum Smith

• Pileus

  Cap 2.0 6.0 cm broad, convex, sometimes with a low umbo; margin incurved, then decurved, occasionally wavy; surface canescent, pale-grey to silvery-grey over a greyish-brown to ochre-brown background, the latter more evident with handling and age; context relatively thin, pallid, soft, unchanging when injured; odor and taste not distinctive.

• Lamellae

  Gills adnexed, close, light-grey in youth, slightly darker at maturity; lamellulae in four to five series.

• Stipe

  Stipe 2.0-6.0 cm long, 1.0-1.5 cm thick, straight, hollow to stuffed, more or less equal; surface colored like the cap, lower portion fibrillose, the apex flocculose in young specimens; context watery-grey, unchanging; dense white mycelium at the base; partial veil absent.

• Spores

  Spores 5.5-7.0 x 3.5-4.5 µm, elliptical to slightly oblong in face view, elliptical in profile, smooth, thin-walled, hilar appendage not conspicuous, inamyloid; spore print white.

• Habitat

  Scattered to clustered under montane conifers; fruiting in the spring near snowbanks; common.

• Edibility

  Edibility unknown.

• Comments

  Known as Lyophyllum montanum in older field guides, this common snowbank species has a distinctive silvery-grey cap and stipe. In age it is less identifiable, becoming a nondescript greyish-brown. Usually, however, remnants of the canescent cap surface can still be detected with a hand-lens. This feature combined with close, greyish gills, and a dense mycelial mat at the base of the stipe, help to distinguish mature specimens from Melanoleuca species with which it sometimes fruits. If in doubt, the latter can be distinguished microscopically by amyloid, warted spores. Compare also with Clitocybe albirhiza, a less robust, variably-brown mushroom, which also has a canescent cap, but with fibrils typically arranged in a zonate pattern, and has conspicuous white rhizomorphs at the base.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Dimitar Bojantchev: Clitocybe glacialis (CP)
  • Boleslaw Kuznik: Clitocybe glacialis (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Clitocybe glacialis (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Clitocybe glacialis (CP)
  • CalPhotos: Lyophyllum montanum (CP)
  • CalPhotos: Lyophyllum montanum (CP)
  • Mushroom Observer: Clitocybe glacialis (CP)
  • Arora (1986): p. 175 (D) [as Lyophyllum montanum]
  • Breitenbach & Kränzlin (v. ): sp. (D, I, & CP)
  • Orr & Orr: p/ 248 (D), pl. 87 (CP) [as Lyophyllum montanum]
  • Smith (1975): sp. 104 (D & CP) [as Lyophyllum montanum]
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)