Species details

Club-foot

Ampulloclitocybe clavipes

Conditional / expert preparation

Description

A grey-brown funnel mushroom with a distinctly club-shaped enlarged stem base and pale decurrent gills.

Identification features

The cap changes from convex to depressed. The stem becomes strongly club-shaped toward the base and may be soft or spongy inside; the spore print is white.

Identification checklist

Check especially for the strongly club-shaped stem base, grey-brown cap becoming depressed, and pale gills running down the stem. A white spore print is an additional supporting character.

How to separate similar species

Tawny funnel has a more even, slimmer stem without a strongly clubbed base. Several other funnel mushrooms are macroscopically similar and some are poisonous, so the enlarged base is only one character.

Habitat

In coniferous and deciduous woodland, often on acidic soils and in groups; mainly in autumn.