Chlorophyllum agaricoides
🏷️ Description
Meet Chlorophyllum agaricoides, a fascinating mushroom with many names—gasteroid lepiota, false puffball, or puffball agaric. Belonging to the family Agaricaceae, this edible mushroom is highly distinctive due to its unique secotioid form. While young, it’s enjoyed as a delicacy, especially in Turkey, where it has been traditionally consumed for generations.
🍴 Culinary Note: This mushroom is edible when young. Its fleshy, nutty taste has made it a traditional treat in regions where it's found.
🧐 Did You Know? Chlorophyllum agaricoides is not just another puffball; its secotioid form and global presence make it a curious find for mushroom enthusiasts worldwide! 🍄🌍
🌟 Unique Traits:
Secotioid Adaptation: Its gleba remains enclosed, protecting it from desiccation.
Spore Mass: Develops into a powdery, mustard-brown substance in mature specimens.
🌍 Distribution and Conservation
This cosmopolitan mushroom is found across North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, with notable records in China, Mongolia, Bulgaria, and Turkey. It thrives in dry meadows, steppes, and even at elevations of up to 3000m in the Rocky Mountains. However, it's a protected species in Hungary and is thought to be declining in Europe due to habitat destruction. 🌱
🔎 Identification
🧢 Cap:
Shape: Egg-shaped to spherical, sometimes tapering to a blunt conical point.
Size: 0.39 to 3.94 inches (1 to 10 cm) wide; 0.98 to 4.72 inches (2.5 to 12 cm) cm high.
Color: Initially white, becoming buff, tan, ocher, or brownish with age.
Surface: Dry, smooth, often developing fibrous scales giving a shredded appearance.
🌿 Hymenium (Gleba):
Form: Secotioid with contorted, rudimentary "gills" enclosed by the cap.
Color: White when fresh, transitioning to yellowish, mustard brown, and finally dark brown.
📏 Stem:
Length: up to 2.76 inches (7 cm), often partially internal or slightly extending below the cap.
Color: White, sometimes discoloring with age.
Base: Thickened, often with a mycelial cord.
🦠 Spores:
Size: 6.5–9.5 × 5–7 µm, elliptic, smooth, with a thick inner wall.
Color: Yellow-brown to reddish-brown (Melzer's reagent reaction).
👃👅 Odor and Taste:
Odor: Sweet when young, becoming cabbage-like as it ages.
Taste: Sweet and nutty.
🌾 Habitat:
Growth: Singly or in clusters on cultivated land, grass, meadows, and sandy soils.
Season: Found from May to October.
👀 Look-Alikes
Agaricus inapertus: Grows in forests and has a black gleba with age.
Endoptychum depressum: Found in conifer woods, with a longer stem and a blackish spore mass.
📜 Synonyms
Secotium czerniaievii Montagne (1845)
Endoptychum agaricoides Czerniajew (1845)
Secotium basserrianum Durieu & Montagne (1846)
Secotium acuminatum Montagne (1846)
Secotium thunii Schulzer (1865)
Secotium malinvernianum Cesati (1869)
Lycoperdon warnei Peck (1876)
Secotium szaboicsense Hazslinszky (1877)
Secotium warnei (Peck) Peck (1882)
Secotium agaricoides (Czerniajew) Hollós (1902)
Secotium pedunculatum Lloyd (1918)
Secotium globososporum Lloyd (1924)
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: u49a11vd (CC BY 4.0)
Photo 2 - Author: u49a11vd (CC BY 4.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Jan Wingate (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 4 - Author: Luis Gonzalo Mata Hernandez (CC BY-SA 3.0)
