Blewit     Section

This is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.

Fruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)

Spore print "light-colored": white or buff, sometimes tinged with pink or tan. Greenish and (except for the Russulales) yellow spore prints also go here
Stalk fibrous, not fracturing like a piece of chalk

None of the special features distinguishing the other white-spored genera:
Gills not free, as in the Lepiotas and Amanitas
Basidia not extra-long, as in the Hygrophoraceae
Spores smooth, except for Lentinellus

Growing on the ground

Found in woods
Not rooting

Gills attached to decurrent
Coloration usually white to greyish brown, sometimes purple or with purple tones
Never with a ring of any kind

Gills attached to decurrent, crowded
Cap glabrous, small to very large; often aging into a funnel shape
Spore print often tinged with pink or buff
Look for things here if they have non-free gills and don't fit the other taxa

Diagnosis

• Spore print pinkish buff
  
• Fruiting body often with some purple coloration, although this tends to be less, the larger the fruiting body is
  
• Cap smooth, margin wavy, usually inrolled even after the cap has fully expanded
  
• Flesh hygrophanous (usually all the way through the cap), often with a slightly soapy look and feel to it (wet your finger first to get the full effect)

• Spores usually finely roughened, but sometimes smooth

Comments

Narrow down your identification:

Entire fruiting body white at first, becoming pale pinkish buff, except for:
Stalk aging or bruising brown; sometimes swollen at base
In woods, especially under spruce

Entire fruiting body with some sort of purple tinge; even the mycelium that often binds the substrate around the base is often lilac

Purple only on the stalk

Like Clitocybe nuda, but slimmer, gracile; colors duller, learning more towards brownish and pinkish buff

Lookalikes: Clitocybe robusta Cap up to 7" across; becoming pale tan; lobed and wavy in maturity Spore print creamy yellow Odor and taste foul In woods Phlegmacium     Subgenus Rusty brown spores. Cobwebby partial veil. Sericeocybe     Subgenus Rusty brown spores. Cobwebby partial veil.

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