Field Mushroom

Where it grows

Field mushrooms fruit from late summer through autumn after warm humid nights, in well-grazed pasture or old lawns where the soil has been fertilised by livestock. They often form fairy rings that mark the slowly expanding mycelium.

How to recognise it

A pure white to off-white cap on a short, stocky stem with a single delicate ring high on the stem. The crucial feature is the gill colour: bright clear pink in young buttons, deepening to chocolate brown and finally black-brown in maturity. The flesh stays white when cut.

Edibility & cautions

A choice edible. Two important look-alikes: the Yellow Stainer (Agaricus xanthodermus), which bruises chrome yellow at the stem base and smells of iodine — toxic to many people — and the deadly Destroying Angel (Amanita virosa), which is pure white throughout, has white gills, and grows from a sac at the base. Always check gill colour and the base.

Culinary use

Excellent grilled with butter and parsley, or finely chopped into a duxelles for sauces.