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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) a whitish umbonate cap that is tinged yellowish or pale brown in the center and is finely scaly-fibrous at the margin, 2) a white stem that is at first woolly-cottony below the ring, 3) a white spore deposit, and 4) large spindle-shaped spores. The online Species Fungorum, accessed April 3, 2016, gave this taxon as a synonym of Lepiota erminea (Fr.) P. Kumm., which Moser(1) and Hansen, L.(2) differentiate by its radish taste among other characters.
Lepiota alba (Bres.) Sacc. was reported by Schalkwijk-Barendsen(1) for Kamloops BC, and there is collection from BC at the University of British Columbia. It has been reported from WA by Andrew Parker (pers. comm.).
Cap: 3-5(8)cm across, bell-shaped becoming convex to flat, with obtuse umbo and acute margin; white to cream-white, pale brownish in center; finely fibrillose-tomentose to woolly-scaly in places, margin finely fimbriate-fibrillose [fringed], (Breitenbach), up to 7cm across, white, umbo sometimes a bit brown; smooth, sometimes a few scales on the margin, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), 3-6cm across, broadly umbonate; whitish, disc with yellow tinge; at first smooth then flocculose, (Hansen), 3-6(8)cm across, umbonate; white, center light yellowish; finely scaly-fibrous at margin, (Moser)
Gills: free, 35-43 reaching stem, broad, 1-3 subgills between each pair of gills; white to cream; edges smooth to white-flocculose, (Breitenbach), close when young, distant when mature, sometimes forking, broad; white, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)
Stem: 4-6(8)cm x 0.4-0.7cm, cylindric, rigid, fragile, hollow; "surface above the annular zone smooth, whitish, slightly white-floccose, surface below white peronate-floccose on a brownish background", (Breitenbach), up to 6cm long and up to 0.6cm wide, equal, hollow; white; sometimes woolly below ring, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), 4-6cm x 0.3-0.5cm, white; "at first cottony below distinct ring, then smooth", (Hansen), 4-6cm x 0.3-0.5cm, woolly-booted-ringed, (Moser)
Veil: ring white, floccose-fibrillose, fugacious [fleeting], (Breitenbach), small ring, woolly at first, later just a remnant, more delicate than in Lepiota clypeolaria, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)
Odor: like Lepiota cristata, (Breitenbach), no radish odor (Moser)
Taste: mild, rather unpleasant, (Breitenbach), no radish taste (Hansen, Moser)
Microscopic spores: spores 10.4-16.4 x 4.9-6.8 microns, elliptic to navicular [boat-shaped], smooth, dextrinoid; basidia (2-)4-spored, 35-45 x 10-12 microns, clavate, with basal clamp connection; pleurocystidia not seen, cheilocystidia 21-32 x 8-15 microns, clavate; cap cuticle of prostrate hyphae in part with erect ends 50-200 x 5-12 microns, interspersed basally with clavate to cylindric cells, colorless to brownish-pigmented; clamp connections mentioned for basidia and cap cuticle, (Breitenbach), spores 11-14 x 5.5-6.5 microns, fusoid [somewhat spindle-shaped], cheilocystidia 17-25 x 8-9 microns, clavate, (Hansen), spores 12-14 x 5.5-6.5 microns, spindle-shaped, (Moser)
Spore deposit: cream-yellow (Breitenbach), white (Schalkwijk-Barendsen)
Habitat / Range
single to gregarious "in (dry) meadows and pastures, on grassy forest edges", summer to fall, (Breitenbach for Europe), in mountains but also in aspen parkland and boreal mixed forest, or under sagebrush, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), single in pastures, (Hansen for Europe), meadows, grassland, (Moser for Europe)
Similar Species
Lepiota clypeolaria has brownish fine scales on the cap, has a very distinct woolly veil on the stem, grows in forests, and has significantly longer hyphal ends in the cap cuticle, (Breitenbach(4)).
