White Umbrella Mushroom (Macrolepiota excoriata)
- Division: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Agaricaceae (Champignon)
- Genus: Macrolepiota
- Type: Macrolepiota excoriata (Umbrella white)
- Meadow umbrella
- Field umbrella
The cap is 6-12 cm in diameter, thick-fleshy, at first ovoid, elongated, opening up to a flat prostrate, with a large brown tubercle in the center. The surface is whitish or creamy, matte, the center is brown and smooth, the rest of the surface is covered with thin scales remaining from the rupture of the skin. Edge with white flaky fibers.
The flesh of the cap is white, with a pleasant smell and slightly tart taste, does not change on the cut. In the leg – longitudinally fibrous.
Leg 6-12 cm high, 0,6-1,2 cm thick, cylindrical, hollow, with a slight tuberous thickening at the base, sometimes curved. The surface of the stem is smooth, white, yellowish or brownish below the ring, slightly browning when touched.
The plates are frequent, with even edges, free, with a thin cartilaginous collarium, easily separated from the cap, there are plates. Their color is white, in old mushrooms from cream to brownish.
The remains of the bedspread: the ring is white, wide, smooth, mobile; Volvo is missing.
Spore powder is white.
An edible mushroom with a pleasant taste and smell. It grows in forests, meadows and steppes from May to November, reaching especially large sizes on humus steppe soils. For abundant fruiting in meadows and steppes, it is sometimes called a mushroom.meadow umbrella.
Similar species
Edible:
Parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera) is much larger in size.
Konrad’s umbrella mushroom (Macrolepiota konradii) with whitish or brown skin that does not completely cover the cap and cracks in a star pattern.
Mushroom-umbrella thin (Macrolepiota mastoidea) and Mushroom-umbrella mastoid (Macrolepiota mastoidea) with thinner cap pulp, the tubercle on the cap is more pointed.
Poisonous:
Lepiota poisonous (Lepiota helveola) is a highly poisonous mushroom, usually much smaller (up to 6 cm). It is also distinguished by a gray-pink skin of the cap and pinkish flesh.
Inexperienced mushroom pickers may confuse this umbrella with the deadly poisonous stink amanita, which is found only in forests, has a free Volvo at the base of the leg (it can be in the soil) and a white smooth hat, often covered with membranous flakes.