Choice
Meadow mushroom, field mushroom
Agaricus campestris
The character that does the work
Pink gills going brown, and no sac at the base. Lift the whole mushroom to check the base; do not cut it.
The specimen sheet, in examination order
01Cap
4 to 10 cm, white, dry, silky or slightly scaly, rounded then flat.
02Underside
Free gills, bright PINK when young, turning chocolate brown then almost black with age. Never white at maturity.
03Stem, and the base
Short, white, with a thin fragile ring. NO SAC AT THE BASE.
04Flesh, cut
White, sometimes staining faintly pink when cut.
05Spore print
06Where it grows
Grassland, pasture and lawns, particularly where animals have grazed. Not in woodland.
07Smell
Pleasant, mushroomy, like a shop mushroom.
When to look
Typically Jul to Nov in the northern hemisphere. Fruiting swings by weeks with rainfall and by a month or more with latitude, so this is when to look rather than when it will be there.
Northern hemisphere.
What is worth knowing about it
The wild ancestor of the shop mushroom and better than it. Two cautions travel with it. The destroying angel grows in the same grass and has white gills and a sac. The yellow stainer, common in the same fields, bruises bright chrome yellow at the stem base and smells of ink or carbolic, and it makes people ill.
Confused with
- Destroying angel
- Yellow stainer
- Horse mushroom
In the kitchen
Best within hours. Peeling is unnecessary. They release a lot of dark liquor, which is the point of them in a pan with butter and nothing else.
The techniques, and why they workThis page tells you what to check. It does not tell you the mushroom in your hand is that species, and it cannot. If you are not certain, do not eat it. If you have already eaten something and feel unwell, contact a poison centre and keep an uncooked specimen.
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