Summary:
Clitocybe odora is identified by its blue-green to dull greenish color and anise odor. Other features include convex to somewhat depressed non-viscid cap, often with broad umbo, adnate to decurrent close gills, white to buff or cap-colored stem, and pinkish cream or buff spore deposit. Var. pacifica, the usual taxon in the Pacific Northwest, and the one described here from Bigelow(5), differs from var. odora in having dull green to dark green gills (instead of whitish to pale buff) and this color is retained when the cap fades with age and bright light. Var. pacifica is similar to the common form of C. odora in Europe, (Bigelow(5)).

Cap:
2.5-10cm across, convex to flat or somewhat depressed; bluish green to dingy greenish, gray or grayish brown with a slight blue-green tinge, to nearly whitish in dry weather; smooth, not viscid, (Arora), 2.5-11cm across, convex expanding to flat, margin inrolled then horizontal and finally broadly undulate [wavy], disc finally shallowly depressed, at times with broad umbo; shades of glaucous blue and glaucous green, finally whitish with some brownish tints, especially on disc; with slight canescent [hoary] bloom for some time, at length appearing radiate-fibrillose, not hygrophanous, margin not striate, (Bigelow), finely matted with silky hairs or sometimes with a hoary bloom, (Phillips)

Flesh:
whitish or tinged cap color, (Arora), thin except on disc; whitish but faintly with cap shades, (Bigelow)

Gills:
adnate to decurrent, close; blue-green to greenish or dark green in one form [var. pacifica], whitish to buff or pinkish buff in another [var. odora], (Arora), adnate to short-decurrent, close to subdistant, broad, up to 0.8cm, occasionally forked; colored as cap becoming darker with age (to a dark green); interveined and usually with faces of gills veined, (Bigelow, color of gills in var. odora given as whitish to pale buff)

Stem:
2-6(9)cm x 0.5-1.5(3)cm, "equal or thicker at either end"; white to buff or cap-colored; smooth, (Arora), 2-5cm x 0.8-3cm, widening downward to somewhat enlarged base, stuffed becoming hollow, compressed [flattened] at times; colored as cap but fading when old; shiny, fibrillose-striate, base white-mycelioid, (Bigelow), sometimes curved, base spongy and covered with white down, (Phillips)

Odor:
strongly fragrant anise-like, at least when fresh, (Arora), anise (Bigelow)

Taste:
anise (Bigelow), strongly aniseed (Phillips), mild (Miller)

Microscopic spores:
spores 6-8 x 3-5 microns, elliptic, smooth, (Arora), spores 6.5-8(9) x 4.5 microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, usually cyanophilic; basidia 4-spored, 25-36 x 4.5-7.5 microns; [pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia presumably absent]; clamp connections present, (Bigelow)

Spore deposit:
pinkish cream or buff (Arora), "pale pinkish buff" becoming darker and more ochraceous when old, (Bigelow)

Notes:
Collections of var. pacifica were examined from WA, OR, ID, and the variety probably occurs in BC, CA, (Bigelow(5)). Collections of var. odora were examined from AB, NS, ON, QC, AK, CO, MA, ME, MI, NY, OH, TN, VT, WY, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, (Bigelow(5)). Clitocybe odora was reported from BC (in Redhead(5)) and occurs in CA (Arora).

EDIBILITY

yes, best used as flavoring agent because of strong taste, (Arora)