A gray, sticky-capped woodwax known for its strong scent of bitter almonds or cherry pits. It grows with spruce and pine and has white to grayish, waxy, slightly decurrent gills and a whitish, dry stem without a slimy veil. DNA work has shown the name covers a group of similar almond-scented species, and some North American collections formerly called H. agathosmus are now placed elsewhere.
Edible but bland (Wikipedia). Look-alikes: Grayish Tricholoma species, including the toxic T. pardinum (GI irritant), have notched rather than decurrent gills, and Entoloma species such as the poisonous E. sinuatum have notched gills that turn pinkish and a pink spore print; check for waxy, decurrent gills and a white spore print. Several close relatives share the almond odor (H. pustulatus, H. odoratus, H. albofloccosus), so the odor alone does not confirm the species.
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Habitat
Ectomycorrhizal; scattered on the ground under spruce and pine and in mixed woods, in late summer and fall.
Distribution
Europe (including the UK, Poland, Czech Republic and Russia) and North America. Pacific Northwest herbarium records come from Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon and Washington. California material formerly called H. agathosmus is now H. albofloccosus (Mykoweb), and Larsson et al. (2018) found that H. agathosmus in the strict sense has a limited north-east European range, while a sister species (H. cf. agathosmus) is intercontinental; North American records therefore need confirmation.
Characteristics
Cap: 3-10 cm, convex with an inrolled margin, flattening; ash gray, sticky when moist, smooth, margin sometimes finely downy. Gills: adnate becoming adnate-decurrent, close to distant, white becoming grayish. Stem: 4-15 cm long, 0.6-2 cm thick, solid, dry, whitish to pale ash gray, finely fibrillose and powdery when young; no gelatinous veil. Odor: strong, of bitter almonds or cherry pits (sometimes weak). Spore print: white. Spores: 8-10.5 x 4.5-5.5 um, ellipsoid, smooth (Wikipedia).
