Small to large agaric, growing on the ground, litter, mulch or wood, with a pinkish brown spore print. Pileus white, pale or grey, viscid or not. Lamellae adnexed, adnate, subdecurrent or decurrent. Stipe central, excentric, lateral or absent. Partial veil remnants absent. Spores angular in end view, hyaline or pale, non-amyloid, smooth; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia absent. Lamellar trama regular or interwoven. Pileipellis a cutis, rarely a trichoderm. Clamp connections absent.

Among agarics with a pinkish brown spore print, Clitopilus (other) is characterised by spores that are angular in polar view but not in side or face views (as in Entoloma) and by the absence of clamp connections. In Clitopilus morphogroup Rhodocybe (which usually shares the absence of clamp connections) the spores are verrucose and angular in end view. The small, white C. hobsonii, with the stipe lateral or absent and growing on wood or litter, is macroscopically very similar to some species of Crepidotus and to Entoloma subgenus Claudopus. Spores must be examined for positive identification as Clitopilus (other).

Two species (apart from those in morphogroup Rhodocybe): Clitopilus hobsonii (stipe absent or lateral) and C. prunulus (stipe central or excentric). The genus is rarely seen, especially species apart from morphogroup Rhodocybe.

W.A., Vic. and Tas. (and possibly also N.T., S.A., Qld and N.S.W.).

In native forests, and possibly in lawns and pastures.

On the ground, litter or wood.

Saprotrophic.

Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (eds) (1995), Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 4. Agarics 2nd part. Edition Mykologia, Lucerne. [Illustration, Description and Microcharacters of C. hobsonii and C. prunulus from Europe]

Noordeloos, M. (1988), Entolomataceae, in T.W. Kuyper, M.E. Noordeloos & E.C. Vellinga (eds), Flora Agaricina Neerlandica, Volume 1, 77–177. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of C. hobsonii and C. prunulus]

Noordeloos, M.E. & Gates, G.M. (2012), The Entolomataceae of Tasmania. Fungal Diversity Research Series, Volume 22. Springer, Dordrecht. [Illustration of C. prunulus (as C. aff. prunulus), Key, B&W Illustration, Description and Microcharacters for C. hobsonii and C. prunulus (as C. aff. prunulus)]