View A43-1112-1979-eng.pdf

CLITOPILUS
CLITOPILUS
Clitopilus, as used here, corresponds roughly in the pink-spored group to
Clitocybe in the white-spored group. The forms included have pink spores, the
lamellae are broadly adnate to decurrent, and a volva and annulus are lacking.
The stems are fleshy-fibrous, more or less similar in texture to the pileus and
not separating from it readily.
The species included in the genus are probably not all closely related. The
type species is Clitopilus prunulus (Scop, ex Fr.) Kummer in which the spores
are marked with longitudinal ridges (Figure 32). Some students consider that
only those species with longitudinally ridged spores are true Clitopilus species.
The species with angular spores are probably more closely related to Entoloma.
Kauff'man recognized eleven species in Michigan.
Key
1. Spores longitudinally ridged C orcellus
1. Spores angular or nearly smooth 2
2. Pileus usually more than 2 in. broad, gray, usually accompanied
by whitish abortive fruit bodies C abortivus
2. Pileus usually less than 2 in. broad 3
3. Spores strongly angular, taste and odor farinaceous;
pileus not marked with concentric lines C. albogriseus
3. Spores smooth or very slightly angular, taste bitter; pileus with
more or less concentric brownish lines C. noveboracensis
CLITOPILUS ABORTIVUS Berk. & Curt. Edible
Figures 253, 254, page 155; Figure 420, page 300
PILEUS 2-4 in. broad, at first convex, becoming plane to depressed, gray to
grayish brown, dry, at first delicately silky, becoming glabrous, margin at first
inrolled, becoming wavy to lobed. flesh white, rather fragile, odor and taste
farinaceous, lamellae decurrent, close, rather narrow, at first grayish then
becoming pink, stipe 1-3 in. long, V^-Vi in. thick, nearly equal, minutely
floccose, grayish, paler than the pileus to whitish, solid, fibrous, spores pink,
elongated, angular 8-10 X 5-7 m-
In groups or sometimes in clusters, around stumps, or on rotten or buried
wood. Sept.-Oct.
This fungus is remarkable in that some of the fruiting bodies frequently do
not develop normally but form malformed whitish structures that at first sight
would be taken for puffballs. These abortive fruiting bodies may be globoid or
depressed or very irregular in shape. The abortive fruit bodies may be found
alone or associated with normal fruit bodies. Both the abortive and normal
forms are said to be edible.
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