E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Summary:
Clitocybe glacialis is characterized by a hoary grayish cap surface when young and snowbank habitat under conifers. According to Miller(11) it is one of the most frequently encountered members of the snowbank flora, fruiting from late may until the first part of August at high elevations.

It was collected in WA, OR, ID, MT, and AB, (Miller(11)). The type is from WY. It was also reported by Cooke from CA and UT, (Redhead). Collections from BC are deposited at the University of British Columbia (as Lyophyllum montanum).

Cap:
2-6.5cm across, convex to broadly umbonate or flat; "gray to lead-colored beneath a hoary (whitish) bloom which may wear off", "often becoming somewhat yellower (to dingy yellow-brown)" when old; surface not viscid, (Arora), bald to slightly greasy (Phillips), pale gray to silvery gray when fresh, "but older specimens develop gray-brown or yellow-brown colors, changing so much as to appear to be a different mushroom", (Trudell)

Flesh:
thin; brownish to whitish, (Arora)

Gills:
"adnate to nearly free (usually adnexed)", close; dark gray to gray, (Arora)

Stem:
3-7cm x 0.5-1.5cm, equal or wider in lower part; "hoary and colored more or less like cap when fresh, or slightly browner", "base often with white mycelial down", (Arora), somewhat fibrillose in lower part, with dense covering of white strands at base, (Trudell)

Veil:
none (Arora)

Odor:
mild (Arora)

Taste:
mild (Phillips)

Microscopic spores:
spores 6.5-8 x 3.5-4 microns, elliptic to oblong, smooth, not amyloid, (Arora); not possessing siderophilous granules as expected for genus Lyophyllum (Redhead)

Spore deposit:
white (Arora)