Clitopilus prunulus

Template:Italic title
Template:Taxobox
Template:Mycomorphbox

***Clitopilus prunulus***, commonly known as **the miller** or the **sweetbread mushroom**, is an edible pink-spored basidiomycete mushroom found in grasslands in Europe and North America. Growing Solitary to gregarious in open areas of conifer/hardwood forests; common under Bishop pine (*Pinus muricata*) along the coast north of San Francisco; fruiting shortly after the fall rains. It has a grey to white cap and decurrent gills.

## Taxonomy

Tyrolean naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli described the miller as *Agaricus prunulus* in 1772. French mycologist Pierre Bulliard called it *Agaricus orcella* in 1793. German botanist Paul Kummer erected the genus *Clitopilus* and gave the miller its current name in 1871. *C. prunulus* is the type species of the genus, the limits of which have been redefined more than once.

Its common names—the miller, and sweetbread mushroom—are derived from its distinctive smell.

## Description

The cap is initially convex when young, but in maturity flattens out, usually with a shallow central depression. It is white or light gray or yellow, sticky when moist, and Template:Convert in diameter with a characteristic feel to the touch of chamois skin. The gills are decurrent in attachment to the stipe, spaced together rather closely, and whitish, although they often develop a pinkish hue in age. The stipe is Template:Convert long × 4–15 mm thick, and white. This mushroom has a mealy odor, somewhat like cucumber. The spore print is pink. Spores are 9–12 × 5–6.5 µm. Scopoli described it smelling like freshly ground flour. *C. prunulus* may be found growing on the ground in hardwood and coniferous woods in the summer and fall.

The variant *C. prunulus* var. *orcellus* has a slimy cap and white colors.

## Distribution and habitat

*C. prunulus* has been recorded from Varsey Rhododendron Sanctuary in Sikkim, and from under cork oak in Morocco.

It is found in Valdaysky National Park in Russia.

A specimen identified as *C.* cf *prunulus* collected from Kermandie Track in southern Tasmania was related though basal to other collections of the species.

## Volatile compounds

The cucumber odor of this species has been attributed to *trans*-2-nonenal, which is present at a concentration of 17 µg per gram of crushed tissue. *C. prunulus* contains the volatile compound 1-octen-3-ol, making it unpalatable to the coastal Pacific Northwest banana slug, *Ariolimax columbianus*.

## Similar-looking species

The poisonous *Clitocybe rivulosa* (fool's funnel) looks similar. The miller has pink spores whereas those of the fools funnel are white, the gills of the miller are more easily pulled away, and the miller smells of raw pastry. The miller also prefers woodland whereas fool's funnel is a grassland species.

## References

1. ↑ *Clitopilus prunulus* (MushroomExpert.Com). Retrieved on January 20, 2009.
2. ↑ Template:Cite book
3. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Kummer1871`
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Template:Cite journal
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wood WF, Brandes ML, Watson RL, Jones RL, Largent DL. (1994). *trans*-2-Nonenal, the cucumber odor of mushrooms. *Mycologia* **86**(4): 561–563.
6. ↑ Template:Cite book
7. ↑ Template:Cite journal
8. ↑ Template:Cite journal
9. ↑ Wood WF, Archer CL, Largent DL. (2001). 1-Octen-3-ol, a banana slug antifeedant from mushrooms. *Biochemical Systematics and Ecology* **29**(5): 531–533.
10. ↑ Template:Cite book

## External links

Template:Commons category

* Template:IndexFungorum

Template:Taxonbar