Common Edible Mushrooms

COMMON EDIBLE MUSHROOMS
Edible: LEPIOTA PROCERA (Parasol Mushroom)
Figure 28. Lepiota
procera. (Parasol
Mushroom).
Edible.
The specific name means tall, but to do the
plant justice the word stately really should
be added to its description (Figure 28). It
comes up in the fall in pastures and open hardwood
forests, and a troop of these tall, graceful
white plants is a sight one need not be a
naturalist to enjoy. They often stand a foot
high, each tapering stem supporting a cap 4
to 6 inches or more in width. The cap is at
first rounded, with the margin attached to
the stem, but later it becomes almost flat, with
a round hump in the center. The surface is
white, marked with gradually diminishing
circles of prominent brown scales. A thick
ring surrounds the upper part of the stem;
this ring can be moved up and down and often
falls by its own weight to the base. The white
gills do not touch the stem at all. The flesh
is also white. The movable ring on the stem,
the length of the stem in relation to the width
of the cap, and the stately proportions of the entire plant are sufficient
to identify it. It is a plant worth knowing, for many consider
it one of the most delicious of all edible fungi.
Edible but to be avoided: LEPIOTA RACHODES. Poisonous
but not fatal: LEPIOTA MORGANI
These two species are so closely related and so much alike that
we may consider them together. The chief reason for discussing
them is that though both are fairly common one is edible and the
other dangerously poisonous. If a person who claims to have some
simple, infallible method for distinguishing edible mushrooms
from poisonous ones could be given a basket of young or half-
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