Species details
Aniseed funnel
Clitocybe odora
Extra caution required
Photo: Holger Krisp · CC BY 3.0 · Photo source · License
Description
A blue-green to grey-green funnel mushroom with a strong aniseed smell.
Identification features
Gills are pale and decurrent; colour fades with age while the smell often persists.
Identification checklist
Check the entire fruitbody for identification. A blue-green to grey-green funnel mushroom with a strong aniseed smell. Gills are pale and decurrent; colour fades with age while the smell often persists. Typical habitat: Deciduous and mixed woodland among leaf litter and moss.
Detailed features
- Cap
- 4–8 cm, initially convex, later expanded to slightly depressed, smooth, grey-blue-green and fading with age.
- Hymenophore
- Gills whitish, thin and crowded, initially adnate and later slightly decurrent.
- Stem
- 4–8 × 0.5–1 cm, cylindrical, greenish-blue, slightly broader and whitish-fibrillose toward the base.
- Flesh
- White to pale greenish.
- Smell
- Very strong smell of aniseed.
- Spore print
- White.
Size
- Cap diameter
- 4–8 cm
- Stem height
- 4–8 cm
- Stem diameter
- 0,5–1 cm
Habitat
Deciduous and mixed woodland among leaf litter and moss.
Fruiting period
July, August, September, October, November
Ecology
- Trophic mode
- Saprotrophic
- Substrate
- Leaf litter
- Notes
- A saprotroph on decaying leaf and needle litter in woodland.
How to separate similar species
Compare especially with these similar species: Clitocybe nebularis, Lepista nuda. Check the combination of cap shape and colour, spore-bearing surface, stem, flesh changes and habitat. A single feature or photograph is not enough; if the key characters do not match the description, do not treat the identification as confirmed.
Similar species
- Clouded agaric (Clitocybe nebularis)
Clouded funnel is larger, grey and lacks the pure strong aniseed smell.
- Wood blewit (Lepista nuda)
Wood blewit is usually more violet and has a pinkish rather than white spore print.
Interesting facts
Did you know? The strong aniseed smell often remains obvious even after older fruitbodies have faded.