''Clitocybe glacialis'' is a species of

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is t ...

in the family Tricholomataceae. Formerly known as ''Lyophyllum montanum'', this is a

snowbank mushroom A snowbank fungus is any one of a number of diverse species of fungi that occur adjacent to or within melting snow. They are most commonly found in the mountains of western North America where a deep snowpack accumulates during the winter and sl ...

, always associated with melting snow along snowbanks and thus ''glacialis''. Originally described by Alexander H. Smith in 1957, this North American species is typically found growing under

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

s on mountains.

Taxonomy

The original specimen was collected in the

Medicine Bow Mountains The Medicine Bow Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that extend from northern Colorado into southern Wyoming. The northern extent of this range is the sub-range the Snowy Range. From the northern end of Colorado's Never Summer ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

by mycologist

Harry D. Thiers Harry Delbert Thiers (January 22, 1919 in Fort McKavett, Texas – August 8, 2000 in Ohio) was an American mycologist who studied and named many fungi native to North America, particularly California. Thiers taught mycology at San Francisco St ...

. In 1957, Alexander H. Smith, who had received the specimen from Thiers, described it as ''Lyophyllum montanum'', placing it in the genus '' Lyophyllum'' because of its dark gray color and gills that became ash-gray (''cinereous'') with age. However, it later became clear that this species lacked siderophilous granules—iron-absorbing particles that darken when heated in acetocarmine—a trait characteristic of other ''Lyophyllum'' species. For this reason, Redhead ''et al.'' in 2000 moved the species to the genus ''Clitocybe'' as ''C. glacialis'' (''Clitocybe montana'' was already used). They speculated that the dark pigmentation may be an adaptation to protect against the higher levels of ultraviolet radiation present in their montane environments.

Description

Fruiting bodies produced by this fungus have caps that are in diameter; the shape is convex to flattened. The cap surface is initially a silvery-gray (defined as ''canescent''), but becomes yellow or yellow-brown with age. Younger specimens may have a whitish surface bloom which may slough off in age. left, The gills of ''C. glacialis'' The gills are gray or dark gray, and closely spaced together; the attachment to the stem is adnate (broadly attached to the stem slightly above the bottom of the gill) to almost free (unattached to the stem). The

stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

is colored the same as the cap, measures long by thick, and is either cylindrical or slightly enlarged at the base, which is covered by white strands.

Microscopic characteristics

Viewed in deposit, such as with a spore print, the spores appear white. Microscopically, the spores are smooth-walled, elliptical or oblong, with dimensions of 5.5–7 by 3.5–4.5

µm The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Unit ...

Edibility

The species is categorized as

edible An edible item is any item that is safe for humans to eat. "Edible" is differentiated from "eatable" because it does not indicate how an item tastes, only whether it is fit to be eaten. Nonpoisonous items found in nature – such as some mushroo ...

. Its odor is pleasant, but its taste is not distinctive.

Similar species

Clitocybe albirhiza ''Clitocybe albirhiza'' is a species of agaric fungus in the family Tricholomataceae. It is found in high-elevation locations in the western United States. Taxonomy American mycologists Howard E. Bigelow and Alexander H. Smith first described t ...

'' is a brown-colored mushroom with similar stature, but it may be distinguished by the white

rhizomorph Mycelial cords are linear aggregations of parallel-oriented hyphae. The mature cords are composed of wide, empty vessel hyphae surrounded by narrower sheathing hyphae. Cords may look similar to plant roots, and also frequently have similar functio ...

s at the base of its stem, as well as fibrils on the cap that are arranged in zones. ''Melanoleuca angelesiana'' is another species found in the same environment; mature specimens of both species resemble each other. They are easier to differentiate when young, however, as ''C. glacialis'' has a silvery-grey bloom that is lacking in ''M. angelesiana''.

Habitat and distribution

This mushroom is found at high elevations from late May until early August. It is referred to as a

because fruit bodies typically appear around the edges of melting snowbanks. The species has been found in various locales in North America, including Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Alberta.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q15637421 glacialis Fungi of North America Snowbank fungi