Species details
Frosted funnel
Clitocybe phyllophila
Deadly poisonous
Photo: Richard Daniel (RichardDaniel) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Photo source · License
Description
A whitish woodland funnel with a frosted cap and crowded pale gills; it contains muscarine and is dangerously poisonous.
Identification features
The cap is chalk-white to pale grey, initially convex and later slightly depressed. Gills are crowded, broadly attached, and pale with a faint pinkish tone. The stem is slender and browns with age.
Identification checklist
Check the white frosted cap, crowded gills, litter habitat, and absence of the typical mealy smell of the miller. Do not taste white funnel mushrooms.
Detailed features
- Cap
- The cap is chalk-white to pale grey, initially convex and later slightly depressed.
- Hymenophore
- Gills are crowded, broadly attached, and pale with a faint pinkish tone.
- Stem
- The stem is slender and browns with age.
- Flesh
- Pale flesh-brown to whitish.
- Smell
- Musty-sweet to aromatic.
- Spore print
- Pale yellowish-white to faintly pinkish.
Size
- Cap diameter
- 5–12 cm
- Stem height
- ≤ 12 cm
Habitat
Grows in deciduous and coniferous woodland, often in leaf or needle litter, from summer to late autumn.
Fruiting period
July, August, September, October, November
Ecology
- Trophic mode
- Saprotrophic
- Substrate
- Leaf litter, Needle litter, Forest soil
- Notes
- Grows in deciduous and coniferous woodland, often in leaf or needle litter, from summer to late autumn.
How to separate similar species
The miller is edible but can look very similar. A mistaken identification can be dangerous, so a photograph alone is insufficient.
Similar species
Interesting facts
Did you know? The species contains muscarine and is treated as deadly poisonous in the catalogue; resemblance to white edible agarics is especially dangerous.