Clitocybe albirhiza

Appearance

The cap is initially convex before flattening and finally becoming funnel-shaped. Its color depends on its state of hydration: when dry, it is buff; when wet, it is cinnamon-buff to clay color. The gills have an adnate to decurrent attachment to the stipe and are closely spaced, sometimes with "veins" connected between them. Gills are roughly the same color as the cap, or paler. The stipe measures 3–8 cm long by 0.5–2 cm wide, and is either equal in width throughout, or tapers on either end. Initially stuffed with a cottony mycelium when young, it hollows in maturity. Colored similar to the cap, the stipe surface ranges from smooth to canescent when wet, to fibrillose-striate when dry. The stipe base features a dense mass of whitish rhizomorphs embedded with needles and other forest debris. The flesh is mostly thin except for the disc . It has a slight to "disagreeable" odor and a "disagreeable and bitter" taste. The edibility of the mushroom is unknown.

The spore print is white. spores are smooth and elliptical, with dimensions of 4.5–6 by 2.5–3.5 µm. The basidia are typically two- or four-spored and measure 20–30 by 3.5–5 µm. The hymenium lacks cystidia. Clamp connections are present in the hyphae.

Distribution

Fruit bodies of ''Clitocybe albirhiza'' grow scattered, in groups, or in clusters under spruce, or, occasionally, larch and pine. Found in the US states of Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming, it is abundant in some high-elevation 5,000–10,000 ft locations in the Rocky Mountains. It is referred to as a "snowbank mushroom" because fruit bodies typically appear around the edges of melting snowbanks. Fruitings occur most frequently in June and early July, about the same time as snowmelt at the elevations in which the species occurs. In the Cascade Mountains of Washington, ''C. albirhiza'' is one of the most common fungi growing on non-serpentine soil.

Habitat

Fruit bodies of ''Clitocybe albirhiza'' grow scattered, in groups, or in clusters under spruce, or, occasionally, larch and pine. Found in the US states of Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming, it is abundant in some high-elevation 5,000–10,000 ft locations in the Rocky Mountains. It is referred to as a "snowbank mushroom" because fruit bodies typically appear around the edges of melting snowbanks. Fruitings occur most frequently in June and early July, about the same time as snowmelt at the elevations in which the species occurs. In the Cascade Mountains of Washington, ''C. albirhiza'' is one of the most common fungi growing on non-serpentine soil.