| In spring and early summer these attractive fungi emerge
beside paths and in hedgerows, often carpeting the edges of walks that
have been spread with wood chippings.
Commonly known as the Spring Agaric, Agrocybe praecox is
considered edible but it must be well cooked.
Cap |
3 to 9 cm in diameter. Cream or pale tan;
convex and slightly greasy when young, expanding to almost flat with a
smooth surface that sometimes wrinkles and crazes when old.
The cap flesh is firm and almost white. |
Gills |
Adnate or adnexed, the gills are pale buff at
first, becoming dirty brown as the spores mature. |
Stipe
|
Almost white when young, becoming browner with age, the stem has a white
ring that discolours to brown as the spores mature and fall. The stem
is 5 to 15 mm in diameter and 4 to 10 cm tall; its base is bulbous.
The fibrous stem is full, with buff flesh that ages light brown. |
Spore print |
Hazel-brown. |
Odour/taste |
Slightly mealy odour; nutty taste. |
Habitat |
Scattered or in small tufts at woodland edges,
and beside wood chip paths and on rotting straw. |
Season |
May to August; occasionally in
September.. |
Occurrence |
Infrequent. |
Similar species |
- Agrocybe molesta (= Agrocybe dura), which also occurs in
spring, is paler and has an umbonate cap at maturity.
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