Clitocybe nebularis
investiganda
f. cul.
Clitocybe nebularis investiganda
investiganda: Owed an investigation. The species is on the Needs Investigation table because a question stands on its published record that the Key cannot read a verdict from: a poisoning reported and no molecule found, a molecule found and no sourced route, a mark in a source list, a molecule known from this one species and not yet confirmed. The name is the stem of its recorded molecule, where the record names one and decides it, then investiganda, and nothing after it while the row is open. Where the record names no molecule the name is investiganda alone, and the gap is deliberate. The Key reads molecules: it puts a molecule in a name only when a record has placed that molecule in the mushroom. A poisoning report is not such a record; it says that harm occurred, not what caused it. The molecule may well exist, and the word states that it is to be found, not a guess at what it will be. The species is not innocuus, because innocuus means that the published record carries no link to a toxic molecule, and this species is on the table because the question of such a link is open; it would be innocuus only once the question is closed in that direction. The species leaves the table, and the word, by a ruling: its molecule registered and read, or its record found to carry no molecule after all. Latin, the gerundive of investigare: to be investigated.
On Needs Investigation, Medicinal Use, The Complete Table.
GBIF: photographs, names and where it has been found.
Sources
| Li et al. 2021 | 14 reports of eating without harm Li H, Tian Y, Menolli N Jr, Ye L, Karunarathna SC, Perez-Moreno J, Rahman MM, Rashid MH, Phengsintham P, Rizal L, Kasuya T, Lim YW, Dutta AK, Khalid AN, Huyen LT, Balolong MP, Baruah G, Madawala S, Thongklang N, Hyde KD, Kirk PM, Xu J, Sheng J, Boa E, Mortimer PE (2021). Reviewing the world's edible mushroom species: a new evidence-based classification system. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 20: 1982-2014. Supplementary Table S1. link |
| Boa E 2004 | ‘food’ — Annex 3 Boa E R (2004). Wild edible fungi: a global overview of their use and importance to people. Non-Wood Forest Products 17. Rome: FAO. ISBN 92-5-105157-7. link |
| Wu et al. 2026 | ‘药用’ medicinal — entry 271, 水粉杯伞 Wu F, Liu SB, Wang XH, Zhang M, Yang ZL, Dai YC (2026). 中国食药用菌物种编目 [Species cataloging of edible and medicinal fungi in China]. 菌物学报 Mycosystema 45(1): 250237. link |
| Wu et al. 2019 | ‘E’ — Wu et al. 2019, Table 1, p. 12: E (edible) Wu F, Zhou L-W, Yang Z-L, Bau T, Li T-H, Dai Y-C (2019). Resource diversity of Chinese macrofungi: edible, medicinal and poisonous species. Fungal Diversity 98: 1-76. doi:10.1007/s13225-019-00432-7. Table 1, 'Medicinal fungi and their function(s)'. link |
Needs Investigation. Why it is here: A record of poisonings after cooking: Keller et al. 2018 (Bern emergency department) record five presentations, with nausea, diarrhoea and headache, onset 0.5 to over 12 h. Nebularine, a cytotoxic purine riboside, is measured in it at about 20 mg/kg fresh (Löfgren et al. 1954, cited in Mushrooms traded as food, Vol. II sec. 2, Nordic Council of Ministers, pp. 142-147), which says the agent of the poisonings is not known. The Swiss inspectors (VAPKO 2023) and Japan's Ministry of Health advise against eating it. (a published record). What would settle it: Evaluate nebularine as a molecule (rule 4): its amount in a serving of 50 g, and its route. It dissolves in water (about 1 mg/ml in buffer, Cayman Chemical item 31329), yet VAPKO 2023 says boiling and discarding the water does not remove it; neither is measured in the mushroom. Read the Keller cases for how the mushrooms were prepared.
Medicinal Use. Listed as medicinal: Wu et al. 2026, 药用 ‘medicinal’. Under investigation: see Needs Investigation.
Cite this pageRubel, William. 2026. “Clitocybe nebularis.” Taxonomy of Toxins. Last modified 24 October 2026. https://taxonomyoftoxins.com/species/clitocybe-nebularis/