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Subalpine catathelasma

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Subalpine catathelasma, Catathelasma subalpinum, is a wild ectomycorrhizal mushroom described from Yunnan in 2020. It is listed as edible in a 2026 Chinese catalogue, but its food use is not yet documented.

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A single mushroom with a broad, rough pale cap and thick white stem stands on a warm ivory surface.

Identity

Catathelasma subalpinum is an ectomycorrhizal mushroom, meaning that it grows in partnership with the roots of forest trees. The catalogue describes its host association as not yet verified. The species was described in 2020 from Chinese collections, after earlier specimens had been placed under the names Catathelasma imperiale or C. ventricosum.

Its common name in the supplied catalogue is subalpine catathelasma. The catalogue gives its supply as wild.

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Food status in China

A 2026 Chinese catalogue of edible and medicinal fungi lists Catathelasma subalpinum as edible or edible-and-medicinal. The catalogue presents this as a research lead. It does not give a culinary tradition, a preparation or a regional name for the mushroom.

Within the genus, some species are gathered for food in China, and C. imperiale is reported as edible. Those findings concern other species. They do not establish that C. subalpinum is eaten, so the food status of this species is open.

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Safety and open questions

The catalogue's edibility entry is a research lead and not an independent safety assessment. No toxicity data or poisoning records for C. subalpinum were found in the sources read here.

The next research question is whether the species is gathered and cooked in any Chinese tradition, under which local name, and how it is prepared. A regional food source or ethnomycological study naming the species would answer that.

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Places

Yunnan

Historical attestation · Region evidence

The studied collections of C. subalpinum come from Yunnan province in the 2020 revision. This is where the species was described, not a record of food use.

See Yunnanon the mapLocation source 1 →

China

Documented use · Country evidence

The 2026 Chinese catalogue lists the species as edible or edible-and-medicinal. The catalogue entry gives no preparation or culinary tradition.

See Chinaon the mapLocation source 1 →

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