The miller mushroom (Clitopilus prunulus) is a rare mushroom from the Entolomataceae family growing in mixed forests in autumn. The miller mushroom smells like wet flour, that’s why its popular name miller mushroom, parallel to meunier in French and molinera in Spanish. The popular name in Catalan moixernó blanc comes from its rough similarity with the real moixernó (Calocybe gambosa), both white colour and excellent taste.
The miller mushroom is initially uniform white colour, matt in dry weather, darkening over the days with concentric marks of greyish or ivory shade on the cuticle and with a pinkish hue on the gills. The cap is irregular, sinuous, with a maximum diameter of 8 cm, initially bell-shaped and finally concave. Beneath the cap it has decurrent on the stem, forked near the edge gills. The stem is as irregular as the cap, short, concave – thinning in the middle- and often eccentric. Frequently, two or more mushrooms weld by their stem bases where mycelium traces are seen. The flesh is white and brittle. The miller mushroom resembles the white hedgehog (Hydnum albidum) in shape, colour and fragile consistency, although it differs by the presence of gills.
The miller mushroom grows locally in the forest, like the hygrophore (Hygrophorus latitabundus). Despite being a good edible mushroom, the miller mushroom has no tradition among mushroom collectors in Central Catalonia, most of whom are unaware of it. The reasons to neglect it are that it grows mainly in deciduous forests when mushroom collectors are looking for Lactarius and Hygrophorus in pine forests, and real risk of mistaken it with toxic mushrooms, also white, of genus Clitocybe which must be distinguished by their cylindrical stem, more regular shape, less decurrent gills, more elastic flesh and different smell.
[photos Jordi Badia]