Cabbage Parachute (Gymnopus brassicolens)

🏷️ Description

Encountering the Cabbage Parachute (Gymnopus brassicolens) might make your nose wrinkle before your eyes spot this tiny woodland dweller! 🌲🍂 Often growing scattered or in gregarious clusters, this uncommon fungus emerges from leafy debris under hardwoods and conifers, especially favoring redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and coniferous wood, such as pines. It acts as a secondary decomposer, sprouting mostly from late summer through autumn, sometimes even lingering into winter months. 🍁❄️

🔎 Identification

• Cap: Measuring between 0.39 to 1.57 inches (1–4 cm) wide, the cap starts convex, becomes irregularly wavy, and eventually depressed with a raised margin. Its surface is hygrophanous (changing appearance as it dries), reddish-brown to leather-yellow, lighter-spotted when wet and yellow-brown when dry. Its edges are finely grooved or ribbed, especially noticeable in moist conditions. 💧

• Gills: Gray-brown to light reddish-brown, densely packed, adnate (attached), almost appearing free, with serrated and wavy edges and smaller intermediate lamellae interspersed. 🌊

• Stem: Slender and thread-like, 0.2 to 0.79 inches (0.5–2 cm) tall and about 0.08 inches (2 mm) thick, tough, twisted, and often split. Initially, the upper third is reddish-brown while the lower two-thirds darken toward blackish-brown. Mature stems darken entirely and display flaky whitish scales. The tapered base is characteristically blackish-brown. 🖤🌱

• Flesh: Thin and gelatinous, brownish within the cap, notably blackish-brown near the stem base. 🧫

• Spores: Elliptical, white-colored, measuring 5.2–6 x 4.2–4.7 µm. ⚪️🔬

👃 Unmistakable Odor

Gymnopus brassicolens lives up to its nickname, the "Cabbage Parachute," by producing a strong, unpleasant aroma distinctly reminiscent of rotten cabbage or sauerkraut. This potent smell is due to chemical compounds like lentic acid and epilentic acid present within the mushroom. 🤢🥬

👀 Look-Alikes

Several similar-smelling mushrooms may be mistaken for Gymnopus brassicolens, including:

• Marasmiellus subpruinosus and Marasmiellus villosipes: Look similar but lack the distinct cabbage or garlic odor.

• Common Stink Fungus (Gymnopus foetidus): Features a strongly ribbed cap margin, lamellae often descending, and smells like stagnant water or rotten fish rather than cabbage.

• Striated stink fungus, needle stink fungus, spindle-shaped fungus, twisted fungus, and bristly fungus (toxic): Differ by size and specific traits but caution is always advisable due to toxicity concerns.

📅 Occurrence and Habitat

Look for Gymnopus brassicolens growing from spring through late autumn (April to November), primarily as a saprophyte on decaying wood, thick leaf litter, or needles in coniferous and mixed forests. Commonly spotted beneath pines, redwoods, eucalyptus, or live oak leaf litter. 🌳🍃

In California, it's often found among dense layers of eucalyptus or oak debris. Photography from habitats along the Drava River near Varaždin and near Koprivnica in Croatia highlights its typical preference for rotting plant material beneath cypresses and other conifers. 📸🌲

🍽️ Edibility

Gymnopus brassicolens is classified as inedible, having no culinary value due to its unpleasant taste and repulsive odor. It's best admired for its ecological role rather than foraging purposes. 🚫🍴

🌿 Ecological Role

As a decomposer, this mushroom aids in breaking down organic matter, cycling nutrients back into the forest floor—playing a small but crucial role in the woodland ecosystem. ♻️🍄

📜 Synonyms

• Marasmius brassicolens Romagnesi (1952)

• Micromphale brassicolens (Romagnesi) P.D. Orton (1960)

• Collybia brassicolens (Romagnesi) Bon (1998)

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Slunky (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Karen Offereins (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Slunky (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Alex (CC BY 4.0)