Agaricus comtulus

Description

Agaricus comtulus is a small edible mushroom with a cream cap. It is widespread and fruits in the parks, meadows, garden lawns, and other grassy habitats and occasionally in deciduous woodlands, either singly or in small groups. Found occasionally across much of mainland Europe, Agaricus comtulus is also recorded in some parts of Asia and North America.

Common names: Ornamented Mushroom, Mini Mushroom.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   2.5-4 cm broad, convex-umbonate to convex when young, expanding to plano-convex; margin at first incurved, decurved at maturity; surface dry, cream-colored, appressed-fibrillose, seldom squamulose, the fibrils slowly becoming yellowish-brown to tawny with age or from handling, the disc usually darker; context white, firm, relatively thin, up to 4 mm thick, unchanging; odor of anise; taste pleasant, sweet.

2. Gills

   Free, crowded, thin, relatively narrow, at first pinkish, then pale grayish-brown, finally dark-brown; lamellulae up to 4-seried.

3. Stem

   3-5 cm long, 4-7 mm thick, stuffed at maturity, usually equal but occasionally with a small basal bulb or enlarged at the apex; surface silky-fibrillose, pallid, becoming tawny-brown with handling or in age; partial veil two-layered, consisting of small floccose scales over a thin membrane, rupturing to form an inconspicuous, pendulous, superior ring, in age appressed to the stipe.

4. Spores

   4.0-5.0 x 3.0-3.5 µm, broadly ellipsoid, smooth, thick-walled, hilar appendage inconspicuous, germ pore not evident, many spores with a dark central body. spore print dark-brown.

5. Spore Print

   Dark-brown.

6. Habitat

   Solitary or in small groups in watered, grassy areas; fruiting from late summer to early fall; rare.

7. Season

   June to October.

Look-Alikes

1. Agaricus augustus

   Smells like almonds, but it's a larger fungus found on conifers..

2. Agaricus arvensis

   Similarities include a cream-colored cap that yellows slowly, a sweet anise odor, and a grassland habit.

3. Agaricus micromegathus

   Is another uncommon, grassland species. It is similar in size to Agaricus comtulus, yellows slowly, and is anise-odored, but according to Kerrigan has a cap which when young has "pinkish-red fibrils that darken to gray-brown" in age.

History

Agaricus comtulus was first named and scientifically described in 1838 by the Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries, and the name he gave it is still generally accepted today.

The specific epithet comtulus, though misspelled, comes from an acronym of the Latin adjective comptus, meaning to comb, adorn or adorn.

Synonyms

1. Psalliota comtulus (Fr.) Quél., 1872

2. Pratella comtula (Fr.) Gillet, 1878

3. Fungus comtulus (Fr.) Kuntze, 1898

4. Agaricus niveolutescens Huijsman, 1960

5. Agaricus rusiophyllus Lasch, 1828

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Phalluscybe (phonehenge) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Phalluscybe (phonehenge) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (CC BY-SA 3.0)