American mycologists Howard E. Bigelow and Alexander H. Smith first described the species officially in 1963, from specimens collected in June, 1954, near Payette Lake, Idaho.

[2] The gills have an adnate to decurrent attachment to the stipe and are closely spaced, sometimes with "veins" connected between them; they are roughly the same color as the cap, or paler.

Colored similar to the cap, the stipe surface ranges from smooth to canescent (covered with a whitish-grey bloom) when wet, to fibrillose-striate when dry.

[1] Fruit bodies of Clitocybe albirhiza grow scattered, in groups, or in clusters under spruce, or, occasionally, larch and pine.

Found in the US states of Idaho,[1] Washington,[5] and Wyoming,[6] it is abundant in some high-elevation 5,000–10,000 ft (1,500–3,000 m) locations in the Rocky Mountains.