Common Edible Mushrooms

COMMON EDIBLE MUSHROOMS
stem with the other hand, pulling it gently from side to side, it
will be detached easily from the flesh of the cap, leaving no torn
shreds but only a smooth hemispherical or rounded hole. Although
the spore color is officially pink, and in most species of
the genus is definitely so, Pluteus cervinus, the most common species
of the genus (Figure 42) makes an off-color spore print in
which the pink is so diluted with tan that one might easily, on
that basis alone, place it with the yellow-brown-spored group.
However, it has gills that do not come within 1/8 inch of the
stem, a definitely separable stem, and certain microscopic characters
that make it a typical Pluteus.
The caps are shiny white to fawn-colored, from 4 to 6 inches
wide, flat or gently sloping down from the center to the edge.
The gills are so close together that when they lose their rigidity,
with age, they collapse against one another; they are from 1/2 to
i inch wide and, as stated above, do not touch the stem at all.
The stem varies in length from 3 to 6 inches, in width from slender
to stout, and is white and rather tough.
Several varieties of this common mushroom have been described,
differing from each other chiefly in the color of the cap.
It is fairly common in summer and fall, growing singly or in
small groups on wood, sawdust, or compost.
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