Clitocybe tarda Peck
Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 24: 140. 1897.

Common Name: none

Synonym: Lepista tarda (Peck) Murrill; Clitocybe sordida (Fries: Fries) Singer

• Pileus

  Cap 2-6 cm broad, convex, expanding to nearly plane, in age often shallowly depressed, with an inconspicuous umbo; margin at first incurved, then decurved, eventually plane to slightly upturned, wavy to lobed, not striate, or if so obscurely; surface glabrous, moist, somewhat waxy in aspect, hygrophanous; color when fresh, medium brown, occasionally tinged lilac, darkest at the disc, shading to a paler margin, in age tan-buff overall; context whitish to pale-buff, soft, thin, 1-4 mm thick, odor indistinct, taste, like that of Agaricus bisporus.

• Lamellae

  Gills adnate, adnexed to subdecurrent, close, moderately broad, whitish, tinged pink when young, becoming pinkish-buff; lamellulae 1-3 seried.

• Stipe

  Stipe 1.5-5.0 cm long, 3-7 mm thick, broadest at the apex, tapering to a narrowed base, straight, stuffed at maturity; surface faintly striate from appressed fibrils, colored dingy, light-brown; veil absent.

• Spores

  Spores 5.5-8.0 x 3.5-4 µm, elliptical, thin-walled, roughened, nonamyloid; spore print pinkish-buff.

• Habitat

  Forming arcs and fairy-rings in grassy areas; fruiting from late fall to mid-winter.

• Edibility

  Edible, of good flavor, but little texture.

• Comments

  This slender relative of the blewit, Clitocybe nuda, often lacks the lilac color of its more common cousin but kinship can be seen in the wavy-margined cap and pinkish, warted spores. Some species of Melanolueca are similar in stature, i.e. have a thin stipe and nearly plane, slightly umbonate cap, but these can be distinguished by whitish to cream-colored spores. Less likely to be confused is the Fairy-Ring mushroom, Marasmius oreades. Although it also grows in grass, it has a much lighter, cream to pale tan cap, well-spaced gills, and white spores.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Fred Stevens: Clitocybe tarda (CP)
  • Fred Stevens: Clitocybe tarda & Clitocybe nuda (CP) -- comparison
  • Arora (1986): p.152 (D & P)

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