St George's mushroom

Quick facts

Scientific name

Calocybe gambosa (Fr.) Donk (1962)

Family

Lyophyllaceae

Edibility

Edible

Season

Apr–Jun

Usual altitude

312–1,528 m

Dangerous look-alike

Fool's mushroom · Amanita verna

IUCN Red List

Not evaluated (NE)

How to recognise it

Cap

Cream-white to buff, 4–12 cm, fleshy and matt, margin rolled under

Gills, pores or pits

Gills white to cream, narrow, very crowded, adnate or notched; never pink

Stem

Short, thick and solid, whitish; no ring or volva

Flesh when cut

White, thick and firm; strong smell of fresh flour

Spore print

White

Where it grows

Limestone pasture, field margins and hedgerows, in rings and arcs on grass — never inside closed woodland. It is the mushroom of the northern belt: Álava, Navarra, northern Burgos, La Rioja and Soria, between 500 and 1200 m. It fruits April to June, and a ring tends to come back to the same spot year after year; the Spanish name comes from St George's day, 23 April, which marks the opening of the season.

Confused with

• Fool's mushroomAmanita vernadangerous

  Cap

  White, sometimes cream at the centre, 5–10 cm, smooth

  Gills, pores or pits

  Gills white, free, crowded

  Stem

  White and slender, fragile membranous ring, buried sac-like volva

  Flesh when cut

  White and thin; does not change colour when cut

  Spore print

  White

  Where and when

  Holm oak, cork oak, oak and pine woods; March to June

  How to tell them apart: A sac-like volva at the base — dig it out — free gills and a ring, which may have fallen off; St George's mushroom has neither volva nor ring.

  White like the St George's mushroom, and it comes up in the same months along the edges of holm oak and oak woods that border the meadows. What separates it is the ring on the stem — fragile, it may have fallen off — the free gills and the sac-like volva at the base, nearly always buried: lift the whole mushroom out. The St George's mushroom has neither ring nor volva and smells strongly of flour. It is deadly, and the symptoms take 6 to 24 hours to appear, by which time the liver is already damaged.

• Deadly fibrecapInocybe erubescensdangerous

  Cap

  Conical with an umbo, 3–8 cm, cream, radially fibrous, splits and reddens

  Gills, pores or pits

  Gills whitish, turning clay brown; they stain red

  Stem

  White, fibrous, stains red; no ring or volva

  Flesh when cut

  White, may slowly redden; fruity smell, never floury

  Spore print

  Ochre-brown

  Where and when

  Beech, oak and parkland on limestone; spring to autumn

  How to tell them apart: A brown spore print and gills that end up brown, against the white print and white gills of St George's mushroom; it also stains red.

  It fruits from spring to autumn, and in spring it overlaps with the St George's mushroom in clearings and at the edges of beech and oak woods, and in parks. It may redden where it is touched or cut, has a fibrous, radially streaked cap and a mild, slightly fruity smell, never floury. The reliable test is the spore print: brown, against the St George's mushroom's white. It contains muscarine in doses that can kill.

• Livid entolomaEntoloma sinuatumdangerous

  Cap

  Ivory to lead-grey, 6–20 cm, smooth, wavy margin

  Gills, pores or pits

  Gills yellowish when young, then salmon pink; notched, fairly distant

  Stem

  Stout, white, sometimes bulbous; no ring or volva

  Flesh when cut

  White and firm; can smell of flour, like St George's mushroom

  Spore print

  Salmon pink

  Where and when

  Oak and beech on limestone or clay; summer to autumn

  How to tell them apart: Gills that turn salmon pink and a pink spore print, against white gills and a white print in St George's mushroom; the floury smell proves nothing.

  It also smells of flour, and that is the trouble: smell alone does not separate them. It fruits from late summer into autumn; what turns up in spring, in the same hedgerows, is the Entoloma clypeatum group. The test covers all of them: they are considerably larger and their gills turn salmon-pink as they mature, while those of the St George's mushroom stay white; a pink spore print confirms it. It causes severe poisoning.

• The millerClitopilus prunulus

  Cap

  White to pale grey, 2–10 cm, feels like chamois leather, often depressed

  Gills, pores or pits

  Gills running well down the stem, crowded, white then pink

  Stem

  Short, white, often off-centre; no ring or volva

  Flesh when cut

  White, soft and fragile; strong smell of flour

  Spore print

  Pink

  Where and when

  Conifer and broadleaf woods and their clearings; summer and autumn

  How to tell them apart: Gills that run down the stem and end up pink, and a pink spore print; St George's mushroom has white gills that do not run down the stem.

  Edible, with the same floury smell, but its gills run down the stem and end up pink. Harmless; worth knowing so it does not cause hesitation in the field.

When it has been found

Finds recorded in Spain, by month: 401 in all, from GBIF. They show when it fruits, and also when people go looking.

Where it has been found

Each square is an area of about 20 km with recorded finds; the darker, the more finds. It does not pinpoint patches: for where it is coming up now, see the forecast map.

Sources

• GBIF: name, authorship and family
• GBIF: finds recorded in Spain
• IUCN Red List: threat category

The usual altitude and the trees come from our own fit of the model to those finds and to the Spanish Forest Map (Mapa Forestal de España).