A medium-sized litter mushroom with a blue-green to greenish-gray cap and a strong anise odor, caused mainly by p-anisaldehyde. The green color fades with sun and age, and old specimens may lose their scent, after which it resembles many pale, toxic Clitocybe species. It decomposes hardwood and conifer litter across the Northern Hemisphere.
Edible according to most sources and used mainly as a flavoring, but some guides advise against eating it because it resembles poisonous species, so treat it with caution. Collect only fresh, distinctly blue-green specimens with a strong anise odor. Faded or bleached C. odora loses its color and can be confused with pale, poisonous Clitocybe. Full safety details in notes.
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Habitat
Saprobic on litter of hardwoods and conifers (in Europe often under beech), alone or in groups; summer and fall, fall through winter in warm climates.
Distribution
Widespread in Europe; in North America widely distributed in northern and montane regions and the Midwest, apparently rare or absent in the southeastern and southwestern United States; also reported from Japan. Var. pacifica occurs in the Pacific Northwest.
Characteristics
Cap: 2.5-7 cm, convex with an inrolled margin, becoming flat or shallowly funnel-shaped, dry, bald to finely fibrillose, blue-green to green when fresh, fading to brownish or whitish. Gills: attached to slightly decurrent, close to crowded, whitish to faintly pinkish (blue-green in var. pacifica). Stem: 3-7 cm long, 5-12 mm thick, whitish to brownish, with copious white basal mycelium. Flesh: thin, whitish. Odor: strongly of anise when fresh. KOH: erases the green on the cap, leaving pale orange or yellowish. Spore print: whitish to cream, pinkish in thick deposits. Microscopic: spores ellipsoid, smooth, inamyloid, 5-7 x 3-5 µm.
