Unidentified large late-autumn gilled fairy-ring fungi for ID please

[cletus_boletus]

Found in West Wales, 11th November, after it seems that the "peak season" is mostly over - it's starting to get pretty cold and wet here now.

My initial thoughts were that they were some kind of Lepista (Blewit), albeit past the point where there's much lilac colouring visible.

However, spore print is white, so Lepista seems unlikely.

Growing very near woodland, but mostly on leaf mold with a bit of grass underneath, on a track verge. In a large fairy ring about 1.5m in diameter, with an old tree stump touching one edge of the ring.

Caps pretty large, from about 6-20cm, although average was about 12-15cm at a guess. Buff / beige in the middle, fading to pale off-white at the edge. Turning slightly grey in the centre as they begin to dry out. Slightly wavy with a minor depression in the centre. Thin cap margin meets gill edge evenly, and is slightly upturned on mature specimens.

Smell is reasonably strong - a little bit "aniseed" at a push, but mostly just smells quite "mushroomy".

Gills closely and evenly spaced, white to cream, slightly wavy, flexible, not particularly brittle but break eventually when scraped with a knife point, slightly decurrent.

Flesh same colour as gills.

Stipe is off-white with beige / buff subtle outer fibres. No visible sheath or ring.

Base is slightly wooly and did seem to bring away a fair bit of the surrounding ground matter when the fruit bodies were lifted out with a knife. (I have heard this is what Lepista Nuda are likely to do, but have never found those so am not sure. I don't think these are Lepista Nuda though!)

I have checked "Mushrooms" by Roger Phillips, and a couple of other books, but to no avail.

These look and smell like they'd be good to eat, but I have no idea what they are! Any ideas anyone? Many thanks!

[fairplay]

These are the very common Clitocybe nebularis, they do not make good eating.

Neil.

EDIT. I get very concerned when people say 'they look and smell like they'd be good to eat' - you can eat ALL fungi, some only ONCE !

[gleditsa]

Originally Posted by fairplay

These are the very common Clitocybe nebularis, they do not make good eating.

Neil.

Mmmm, i would have said a Tricholoma sp, something like T. imbricatum ??

j.

[SheffieldLass]

Clitocybe nebularis does have a distinctive strong smell ... very nice, Lepista nuda-ish but more perfumed/fragrant in my opinion (in fact I like sniffing them ) ... not sure if aniseed/mushroomy is quite the same thing.

[cletus_boletus]

Originally Posted by fairplay

These are the very common Clitocybe nebularis, they do not make good eating.

Neil.

EDIT. I get very concerned when people say 'they look and smell like they'd be good to eat' - you can eat ALL fungi, some only ONCE !

Thank you for your responses so far folks!

I've checked "Mushrooms" (Roger Phillips) and while those Clitocybe nebularis look pretty close, there are a few details which don't quite seem to match.

My stems are much shorter, more squat, and with buff fibres on the outside. Caps are a fair bit more wavy too.

Also, "Mushrooms" says of the cap margin "remaining inrolled", which many of these definitely weren't (quite the opposite - positively "outrolled", if there is such a word). Spore print was also very white (virtually invisible on white paper, but chalk white on my finger tip), and "Mushrooms" says cream.

But that was my partner's best guess so far as well.

Not sure about the Tricholoma sp either - nothing seems to match there, although there are some close-ish ones.

Regarding editability, I almost certainly wouldn't consider eating these, whatever the outcome on here, and however "positive" an ID I receive. I picked them purely to attempt identification.

As an aside, what is the recommended procedure for cleaning my wicker basket after having picked something I can't identify? (For example, I know Death Cap spores are also deadly poisonous.) I don't particularly want to risk contaminating something edible I pick later using the same basket. Should I be more cautious about this? What do you collect your uncertain specimens in?

Thanks! (In case you can't work out, this is my first proper year fungi foraying!)

EDIT: Google Images seems to have quite a few photos which look very much like my find. So I guess that pretty much confirms it now. (Although I hasten to add that I would not use such an uncertain confirmation for anything I was considering eating! But slight uncertainty is by far a good enough reason for deciding definitely not to eat something, as far as I'm concerned.)

EDIT 2: From this website, someone else has said "Oddly enough, clitocybe nebularis in England has the typical pleasant sweetish smell of the genus and similar to that of the wood blewit. The foul odour seems to be peculiar to the U.S. version. I wonder if C Nebularis (U.S.) and C. Nebularis (U.K.) are in fact different species."

So I guess it's nice to know I was somewhat in the right ballpark, and that this isn't miles away from a Blewit. According to Wikipedia, Clitocybe nebularis was once known as "Lepista nebularis" too.

[fairplay]

You should be able to identify the Death Cap 'in the field', but if you do feel the need to take one home to look at, you obviously keep it separate from any edible species you plan to eat, preferably in a bag - even if it is plastic.

I do not know of any cases of poisoning through the consumption of Death Cap spores, but it is not inconceivable that it could happen.

Neil.