Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

miller the common name of a mushroom, Clitopilus prunulus. Its distribution includes most of Europe, from the north down to Spain, and most of N. America, where it is called sweetbread mushroom. It grows in grassy areas in woods and parks from July to October, and is eccentric, which often causes the cap to be tilted (hence Clitopilus, meaning ‘cap tilted over’). The cap, 5–10 cm (2–4") across, is grey or faintly plum coloured and convex in young specimens, then whiter and almost flat, with a ‘kid-glove’ texture. The gills, whose disposition gives mature specimens a trumpet shape, are first white and then pinkish. The white stem grows to 6 cm (2") high.