Summary:
Lepista inversa is distinguished by its orange brown color, a depressed cap, decurrent gills that become cap-colored, mild or spicy pepper-like odor, and pale spores The online Species Fungorum, accessed April 4, 2016, gave the current name as Paralepista flaccida (Sowerby) Vizzini, in Vizzini & Ercole, Mycotaxon 120: 262 (2012), and listed Lepista inversa (Scop.) Pat. as a synonym. MycoBank, accessed the same day, gave the current name as Lepista flaccida (Sowerby) Pat. and listed Paralepista flaccida (Sowerby) Vizzini and Lepista inversa (Scop.) Pat. as synonyms.

Cap:
2-10cm across, "broadly convex or centrally depressed with an incurved margin, becoming broadly depressed or even funnel-shaped in age"; "dull orange to pale orange-brown, orange-tan, tan, reddish-tan, ochre-buff, or cinnamon-brown", margin often paler; dry, (Arora), 5-11cm across, convex with depressed disc, expanding to flat, with shallowly depressed disc; hygrophanous, brick color ("orange cinnamon" Ridgway(1) color) to near ferruginous, with darker vinaceous brown spots, fading to pale pinkish cinnamon; hoary at times when moist, becoming bald, opaque, (Bigelow)

Flesh:
thin, (Arora), thin, pliant, (Bigelow)

Gills:
decurrent, close; "buff to pale pinkish-cinnamon or colored like cap but paler", (Arora), "decurrent, crowded, narrow"; pale pinkish cinnamon then colored as cap, edges sometimes darker than faces; edges even, (Bigelow)

Stem:
3-10cm x 0.4-0.8cm, equal or widened below, typically slender and often curved; colored like cap or paler; smooth or with whitish hairs at base, (Arora), 3-5cm x 0.8-1.5cm at top, equal, soon becoming hollow; colored as cap or paler; appressed-fibrillose to +/- pubescent, "base with white mycelium binding surrounding debris", (Bigelow)

Odor:
mild or sharp, spicy, pepper-like, (Arora), not distinctive, (Bigelow), faint but rather sharp odor, (Ammirati), faint or aromatic (of peaches), (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), sourish-mushroomy, not unpleasant, (Breitenbach)

Taste:
not distinctive (Bigelow), mild, mushroomy, (Breitenbach)

Microscopic spores:
spores 4-5 x 3.5-4 microns, nearly round, minutely prickly (or appearing smooth), (Arora), spores 4-5 x 3.5-4 microns excluding verruculae that are +/- 0.5-0.75 microns tall, nearly round to broadly elliptic, verruculose (with fine warts), verruculae cyanophilic, inamyloid; basidia 4-spored, (Bigelow), cheilocystidia and pleurocystidia not seen (Breitenbach)

Spore deposit:
white to creamy yellowish (Arora), creamy white (Bigelow)

Notes:
Bigelow examined collections from ID and Switzerland, Breitenbach gave the distribution as North America, Europe, North Africa, and Asia. There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia, and collections from WA, ID, and AK at the University of Washington.

EDIBILITY

not recommended (Arora), "European mushroom books say it is edible, but it should be tried very cautiously if at all", (Ammirati)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Clitocybe flaccida (Sowerby: Fr.) P. Kumm.
Clitocybe inversa (Fr.) Quel.