Medium to large agaric, growing on the ground, with a white or cream to yellow spore print. Pileus orange, brown or purple, not viscid. Lamellae adnate, subdecurrent or decurrent. Stipe central. Partial veil remnants absent. Spores hyaline, amyloid, warty; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present or absent. Lamellar trama regular or interwoven. Pileipellis a cutis or a trichoderm. Clamp connections present.

The hyaline, amyloid, ornamented spores are distinctive, and found otherwise only in Russula and Lactarius (both lacking clamp connections and with sphaerocytes in the pileus trama), Melanoleuca (lacking clamp connections and typically with fusiform or lageniform cheilocystidia with crystal capping) and Lentinellus (with serrated lamellae edges). Among other terrestrial, white to cream-spored agarics with subdecurrent to decurrent lamellae, Leucopaxillus is distinguished from Clitocybe by the robust fruit-bodies with non-hygrophanous pileus.

Leucopaxillus Boursier, Bull. Trimestriel Soc. Mycol. France 41: 393 (1925).

Several species. At least two in native forests (Leucopaxillus eucalyptorum and L. lilacinus), one under planted eucalyptus (L. cerealis) and one under pines (L. amarus).

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

In native forest, and in pine plantations.

On the ground.

Ectomycorrhizal.

Bougher, N.L. (1987), A new species of Leucopaxillus Bours. (Agaricales) from Western Australia, Sydowia 39: 17–21. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of L. lilacinus]

Bougher, N.L. & Syme, K. (1998), Fungi of Southern Australia. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of L. lilacinus]

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of L. amarus, L. eucalyptorum and L. lilacinus]

Grey, P. & Grey, E. (2005), Fungi Down Under. Fungimap, South Yarra. [Description, Illustration and Map for L. lilacinus]

Grgurinovic, C.A. (1997a), Larger Fungi of South Australia. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium and The Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee, Adelaide. [Description and Microcharacters of L. amarus and L. eucalyptorum and Illustration of the former species]

Hubregtse, V. & Hubregtse, J. (2012), The fungus Leucopaxillus cerealis newly recorded from Australia, Vict. Naturalist 129: 160–166. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of L. cerealis]

McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of L. lilacinus and an unnamed species]