Description:— Basidiocarps small, omphalinoid to clitocyboid. Pileus 6–33 mm diam., convex with or without a shallow central depression when young, becoming depressed to deeply concave or rarely somewhat plano-convex or applanate with age; surface pure white, weakly hygrophanous and becoming somewhat whitish, not striate, glabrous to the naked eye, velutinous under a lens, tacky when wet, with fine longitudinal ridges towards the margin when young that become more pronounced with age; margin almost inrolled when young, becoming incurved to somewhat straight at maturity, with 1–2 rows of marginal scales. Lamellae subdecurrent to deeply decurrent, rarely furcate, close, initially white, becoming orange-white (6A2/OAC759) at maturity, up to 4 mm wide, with lamellulae of 1–6 lengths; edge entire to the naked eye, finely torn under a lens, concolorous with the sides. Stipe 12–31 × 1–7 mm, central or rarely eccentric, terete, equal or slightly tapering towards the apex, cartilaginous, solid; surface white or whitish, finely appressed-fibrillose all over, finely pruinose towards the apex; base with mycelial cords. Odor not distinctive. Taste farinaceous. Spore print not obtained.

Basidiospores 5–8(8.5) × 3.5–6.5 (6.43 ± 0.72 × 4.25 ± 0.43) μm, Q = 1–2, Qm = 1.46, ellipsoid, with 6–10 longitudinal ribs, colorless, thin-walled. Basidia 17–27 × 6–9 μm, clavate, colorless or pale yellow, thin-walled, 4- spored; sterigmata up to 4 μm long. Lamella-edge heteromorphous or rarely fertile. Cheilocystidia 15–78 × 4–6.5 μm, scattered, cylindrical, often tapering towards the apex, flexuose or narrowly clavate, often septate, colorless, thin-walled. Pleurocystidia absent. Lamellar trama subregular; hyphae 2.5–13 μm wide, colorless, thin-walled. Subhymenium inconspicuous. Pileus trama subregular; hyphae 2–8 μm wide, colorless or pale yellow, thin-walled. Pileipellis a cutis occasionally disrupted by erect solitary hyphae; hyphae loosely arranged, slightly gelatinized, 3–7.5 μm wide, colorless, thin-walled. Stipitipellis a cutis often disrupted by bunches of ascending hyphae towards the stipe apex; hyphae 2–5.5 μm wide, thin-walled, colorless or very pale yellow; terminal cells cystidioid, 14–40.5 × 3.5–7 μm, flexuose-cylindric, narrowly clavate or narrowly utriform, thin-walled. Caulocystidia absent. Clamp connections absent.

Habitat: — On soil, scattered or in small groups, among moss or crevices of lateritic stones. August–November.

Worldwide geographical distribution range:—Known from Malaysia (Type) and India.

Specimens examined:— INDIA. Kerala State: Kozhikode District, Vadakara, Vellyapilly: 5 August 2011, K. N. Anil Raj AR785 (CAL 1613); 20 August 2011, K. N. Anil Raj AR835 (CAL 1614); 7 November 2011, K. N. Anil Raj AR933 (CAL 1615); Ernakulam District, Iringolkavu Sacred Grove: 13 August 2013, K. P. Deepna Latha DKP121 (CAL 1616). GenBank accessions: MG345134 (ITS), MG321558 (nLSU) and MG321559 (rpb2).

Comments:—The Kerala collections agree with Clitopilus orientalis, originally described from Malaysia (Baroni & Watling 1999), in almost all characters. The only difference observed was the slightly gelatinized pileipellis in our collections. Clitopilus orientalis is characterized by a white pileus with a glabrous or slightly matted, silky-fibrillose surface, a radially ridged or fluted, incurved pileal margin, subdecurrent to deeply decurrent lamellae with concolorous edges, ellipsoid or short-ellipsoid basidiospores, widely scattered, cylindrical or ventricose-rostrate cheilocystidia and a pileipellis and stipitipellis with ascendant or erect, cylindric, colorless end cells. Clitopilus orientalis can be placed in the section Scyphoides (Singer 1986) owing to their small basidiocarps, basidiospores that are smaller than 10 μm and the presence of a constant and distinct stipe.

A BLASTn search of the GenBank using the ITS (426 bp) and nLSU (822 bp) sequences obtained from the present collection showed no close hits with zero e-value. In a BLASTn search using the rpb2 sequence (666 bp), the closest hits were Clitopilus crispus (KC816911, 99% identity) and C. apalus (KC816906, 99% identity).