Clitocyboid Mushrooms

[ Basidiomycetes > Agaricales > ?-aceae (polyphyletic) . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Traditionally, "Clitocybe" is a genus of gilled mushrooms that lack partial veils and feature white, yellowish, or pinkish spore prints, as well as gills that are broadly attached to the stem or run down it. Some mycologists separated "Lepista," featuring clitocyboid mushrooms with spiny spores and pinkish spore prints, as a separate genus, while others viewed the lepistas as a section within the genus Clitocybe.

If you noticed the quotation marks I placed around "Clitocybe" and you are now waiting for me to pull the taxonomic rug out from under your feet, I congratulate you on having a much better sense of punctuation than my freshmen, who appear to believe we should use "quote marks" for "anything" we "want" . . . and yes, the writing is on the wall: while a comprehensive DNA study of the mushrooms traditionally placed in Clitocybe has not yet been done (to my knowledge), enough work has been done to determine that the mushrooms in question are not all closely related. Some, in fact, are only distantly related, and much of the genus will have to be split up among several existing (and several new) genera.

Identification of clitocyboid mushrooms, beyond a handful of easily recognized "field guide species," often depends on microscopic analysis--and Clitocybe literature for North America is hard to find and hard to work with. H. E. Bigelow's two-part monograph (1982, 1985) of the North American Species of Clitocybe is selling online for about $150 these days. If you are in California, the key from Denise Gregory's San Francisco State University masters thesis on Clitocybe in California can be found online at MykoWeb, without the species descriptions. Further Clitocybe literature is listed below.

As far as pronouncing Clitocybe, make it rhyme with "I toss a bee." While my usual response to the question of how to "correctly" pronounce scientific names is, "Who cares?" (see this page for details), the case of Clitocybe may be an exception if you want to avoid the strange looks you will get from mushroom folks when you pronounce it as though it were an English word. It is one thing to be received as a bumpkin who doesn't know how to pronounce scientific names, but it is another thing entirely to be received as a perverted bumpkin who doesn't know how to pronounce scientific names.

Clitocyboid mushrooms, in general, should not be collected for the table. The popular Clitocybe nuda is an exception, at least for experienced mushroomers who can separate it from potentially poisonous species of Cortinarius. But the vast majority of clitocybes are hard to identify, even for mycologists. Since a few species are known to be dangerously toxic, the genus is best avoided.

Species Pages

Ampulloclitocybe (Clitocybe) clavipes
Clitocybe eccentrica
Infundibulicybe (Clitocybe) gibba
Clitocybe gigantea (Leucopaxillus giganteus)
Clitocybe (Lepista) inversa
Clitocybe maxima
Clitocybe nebularis
Clitocybe (Lepista) nuda
Clitocybe odora
Clitocybe robusta
Clitocybe sclerotoidea
Infundibulicybe (Clitocybe) squamulosa

References

Ammirati, J. F., A. D. Parker & P. B. Matheny (2007). Cleistocybe, a new genus of Agaricales. Mycoscience 48: 282-289.

Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms demystified: A comprehensive guide to the fleshy fungi. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. 959 pp.

Bigelow, H. E. & A. H. Smith (1969). The status of Lepista--A new section of Clitocybe. Brittonia 21: 144-177.

Bigelow, H. E. & Smith, A. H. (1970). A new Clitocybe from Michigan. The Michigan Botanist 9: 30-33.

Bigelow. H. E. & A. H. Smith (1973). Cantharocybe, a new genus of Agaricales. Mycologia 65: 485-488.

Bigelow, H. E. (1973). The genus Clitocybula. Mycologia 65: 1101-1116.

Bigelow, H. E. (1977). A new Clitocybe from Texas. Mycologia 69: 1047-1049.

Bigelow, H. E. (1977). New taxa of Clitocybe. Mycotaxon 6: 181-185.

Bigelow, H. E. (1981). Spore ornamentation in the Tricholomataceae I. Mycologia 73: 128-140.

Bigelow, H. E. (1982). North American species of Clitocybe. Part I. Germany: Cramer. 280 pp.

Bigelow, H. E. (1983). Some clampless species of Clitocybe. Cryptogamie, Mycologie 4: 93-98.

Bigelow, H. E. (1985). North American species of Clitocybe. Part II. Germany: Cramer. 191 pp.

Butler, G. (1981, 2004). Trial field key to species of the genus Lepista and related species (Clitocybe - Section Verruculosae) for the Pacific Northwest. Retrieved from the Pacific Northwest Key Council Web site: http://www.svims.ca/council/Lepist.htm

Clark, S. (2002, 2007). Trial field key to selected species of Clitocybe in the Pacific Northwest. Retrieved from the Pacific Northwest Key Council Web site: http://www.svims.ca/council/Clitoc.htm

Cochran, K. W. & Cochran, M. W. (1978). Clitocybe clavipes: Antabuse-like reaction to alcohol. Mycologia 70: 1124-1126.

Gregory, D. C. (2007). The genus Clitocybe of California. Masters thesis, San Francisco State University.

Gregory, D. C. (2007). Key to the species of Clitocybe, Ampulloclitocybe, and Infundibulicybe from the genus Clitocybe of California. Retrieved from the MykoWeb Web site: http://mykoweb.com/CAF/keys/Clitocybe_key.pdf

Harmaja, H. (1969). The genus Clitocybe (Agaricales) in Fennoscandia. Karstenia 10: 5-121.

Harmaja, H. (1976). A further revision of the generic limit between Lepista and Clitocybe. Karstenia 15: 13-15.

Harmaja, H. (1976). Type studies in Clitocybe. 2. Karstenia 15: 16-18.

Harmaja, H. (1978). New species and new combinations in the pale-spored Agaricales. Karstenia 18: 29-30.

Harmaja, H. (1979). Type studies in Clitocybe. 3. Karstenia 19: 22-24.

Harmaja, H. (1979). Type studies in Clitocybe 4. Karstenia 19: 50-51.

Harmaja, H. (2003). Notes on Clitocybe s. lato (Agaricales). Annales Botanici Fennici 40: 213-218. This paper is available online here.

Kauffman, C.H. (1918). The gilled mushrooms (Agaricaceae) of Michigan and the Great Lakes region, Volumes I and II. New York: Dover. 924 pp. This book is available online here.

Kauffman, C. H. 1927. The genus Clitocybe in the United States, with a critical study of all the north temperate species. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters 8: 153-214.

Kuyper, T. W. (1995). Clitocybe. In Bas, C., Th. W. Kuyper, M. E. Noordeloos & E. C. Vellinga. Flora Agaricina Neerlandica. Vol. 3. Netherlands: A. A. Balkema. 42-62.

Kuyper, T. W. (1995). Lepista. In Bas, C., Th. W. Kuyper, M. E. Noordeloos & E. C. Vellinga. Flora Agaricina Neerlandica. Vol. 3. Netherlands: A. A. Balkema. 67-75.

Laursen, G. A., O. K. Miller, Jr. & H. E. Bigelow (1976). A new Clitocybe from the Alaskan arctic. Canadian Journal of Botany 54: 976-980.

Moncalvo, J. M., et al. (2002). One hundred and seventeen clades of euagarics. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 23: 357–400. An online version of this paper is available at: http://www.biology.duke.edu/fungi/mycolab/publications/117clades.html

Murrill, W. A. (1915). The genus Clitocybe in North America. Mycologia 7: 256-283.

Redhead, S. A., J.-M. Moncalvo, R. Vilgalys & F. Lutzoni (2002). Phylogeny of agarics: Partial systematics solutions for bryophilous omphalinoid agarics outside of the Agaricales (Euagarics). Mycotaxon 82: 151-168.

Redhead, S. A., F. Lutzoni, J.-M. Moncalvo & R. Vilgalys (2002). Phylogeny of Agarics: Partial systematics solutions for core omphalinoid genera in the Agaricales (Euagarics). Mycotaxon 83: 19-57.

Smith, A. H., Smith, H. V. & Weber, N. S. (1979). How to know the gilled mushrooms. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown. 334 pp.

Stott, K., C. Desmerger & P. Holford (2005). Relationship among Lepista species determined by CAPS and RAPD. Mycological Research 109: 205-211.

Trappe, J. M. (1972). Parasitism of Helvella lacunosa by Clitocybe sclerotoidea. Mycologia 64: 1337-1340.

Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2008, April). Clitocyboid mushrooms. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/clitocybe.html

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