Marasmius oreades - Fairy Ring Champignon

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

When you see them pouring across grassland in great crowds, jostling one another like excited football fans queuing for the Big Match, you could (almost) forgive the anthropomorphic attribution to these mushrooms of the cry ‘We are the Champignons’. As the common name suggests, sometimes they create fairy rings (of the turf-killing kind that gardeners are not at all keen on). These grassland mushrooms’ other main claim to fame is that they are edible, although the stems are very tough and so cooks who know about this problem simply retain the caps.

Identification Guide

Cap	2 to 5cm across; initially convex, flattening with a broad umbo; hygrophanous, orange-ochre or tan, drying buff or pallid cream; smooth, sometimes with faint marginal striations.
	Gills Adnexed or free; distant; white at first, becoming cream.
Stem	4 to 8cm long and 2 to 6mm dia.; tough and pliant; white or buff, darkening towards base; smooth and dry; cylindrical, base sometimes slightly swollen; white and downy at base.
Spore print	White.
Odour/taste	Not distinctive.
Habitat	Grassland a nd occasionally woodland edges.
Season	June to November.
Occurrence	Common.
Similar species	Agrocybe praecox, the Spring Fieldcap, has buff gills that darken and produce brown spores.