Aniseed Funnel

Cap

5-7 cm. Blue-green, greyish or flushed greenish. Convex at first with a low, broad umbo and in-rolled margin. Later expanding and becoming irregular and wavy at the margin and can become shallowly funnel shaped.

Gills

Slightly running down the stem (decurrent), crowded, the edge of the gills is smooth. Whitish, tinged with cap colour when young, becoming grey-green with age.

Stem

4-7cm long, 0.5-1 cm diameter. Cylindrical, sometimes curved. Flushed with cap colour, the base is covered in fine white down.

Flesh

Thin and soft in cap, fibrous and solid in stem, can be hollow. Whitish to pale tan.

Habitat

Saprotrophic, growing on soil among leaf litter. Often under brambles and bushes in woodland (preferably under Beech, sometimes under different hardwoods, occasionally under conifers), parkland or heathland. Grows solitarily or in groups.

Possible Confusion

Fragrant Funnel (Clitocybe fragrans), pictured, has a rather similar aniseed smell, but it grows in a different habitat, it seems to prefer grass, also its cap changes colour according to its water content (hygrophanous). It can be white to off white to tan. Avoid this confusion, because Fragrant Funnel is toxic, it contains Muscarine!

Verdigris Roundhead (Stropharia aeruginosa) has a dark spore print and doesn’t have aniseed smell.

Taste / Smell

Taste and smell strongly of aniseed.

Frequency

Occasional but widespread in the UK.

Spores

White. Ellipsoid, smooth.