Agaricus sylvicola

Description

Agaricus sylvicola is a species of Agaricus mushroom related to the button mushroom. It is edible and popular in Europe.

This mushroom grows in both deciduous and coniferous woodland in Britain, Europe, and North America. Appearing in the autumn, it is rarely seen in huge numbers, usually just a few, or solitary.

This mushroom has a distinct aniseed odor and smooth cap that slowly turns ochre when injured, making it easy to distinguish from other large fungi in the Agaricaceae family.

This species is often misspelled as Agaricus Silvicola.

Common names: Woodland Agaricus, Large Floppy Annulus.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   6.0-12.0 cm broad, globose to deeply convex, becoming convex to plano-convex at maturity; margin incurved, then decurved, eventually straight; surface dry, white, glabrous to innately fibrillose, in dry weather sometimes squamulose; yellowing slowly when bruised or with age, yellow with KOH; context firm, white, unchanging, up to 1.5 cm thick; the odor of anise or almonds; taste mild.

2. Gills

   Free, close to crowded, moderately broad, pallid in youth, blackish-brown in age; edges lighter than the faces.

3. Stem

   6.0-12.0 cm long, 1.5-2.0 cm thick, equal, clavate, sometimes bulbous, hollow to stuffed; the surface of apex whitish, fibrillose-striate, lower stipe colored like above, more or less glabrous, stipe base slowly bruising yellowish to tawny; context white unchanging; veil double, the lower surface white, matted-tomentose, splitting radially in cogwheel fashion revealing a similarly textured often fissured under-layer; annulus white, thin, the margin blunt, pendulous, attached high on the stipe.

4. Spores

   5.5-6.5 x 3.5-4.0 µm, ellipsoid, smooth, moderately thick-walled; hilar appendage conspicuous.

5. Spore Print

   Blackish-brown.

6. Habitat

   Solitary or in small groups in mixed hardwood-conifer forests; fruiting from late fall to mid-winter; uncommon.

Look-Alikes

1. Agaricus arvensis

   Similar in appearance, but also has anise-flavored; distributed in grasslands, often growing in rings.

2. Agaricus xanthodermus

   Quickly turns chrome yellow, both on the rim of the cap and especially when cutting the bottom of the stem. It smells more like ink or iodine than anise.

3. Agaricus albolutescens

   Shorter, stockier mushroom with a white cap and strong yellowing reaction when bruised.

History

In 1832 Italian mycologist Carlo Vittadini (1800 - 1865) described this species as Agaricus campestris var. sylvicola.

In 1873 American botanist-mycologist, Charles Horton Peck (1833 - 1917) give this species new naming Agaricus sylvicola.

The specific epithet sylvicola means "inhabiting woods".

Synonyms

1. Agaricus abruptibulbus

2. Agaricus campestris

3. Agaricus essettei

4. Agaricus flavescens

5. Fungus flavescens

6. Fungus sylvicola

7. Pratella campestris

8. Pratella flavescens

9. Psalliota campestris

10. Psalliota sylvicola.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: nikibifrost (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Richard Daniel (RichardDaniel) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Pedro Hafermann (Public Domain)

Photo 4 - Author: nikibifrost (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 5 - Author: nikibifrost (CC BY-SA 4.0)