Parasol mushroom

Quick facts

Scientific name

Macrolepiota procera (Scop.) Singer (1948)

Family

Agaricaceae

Edibility

Edible

Season

Sep–Nov

Usual altitude

152–1,394 m

Dangerous look-alike

Deadly dapperling · Lepiota brunneoincarnata

IUCN Red List

Not evaluated (NE)

How to recognise it

Cap

10–30 cm, cream with coarse brown scales and a dark central boss

Gills, pores or pits

Gills white to cream, free, crowded, soft

Stem

Tall and slender, zigzag snakeskin, bulbous base, double ring that slides

Flesh when cut

White, unchanging when cut; soft in the cap, fibrous in the stem

Spore print

White

Where it grows

Meadows, dehesas, clearings and woodland edges — the gap between the trees rather than the wood itself. It comes up in thinned pinewoods, chestnut groves, open holm-oak dehesa and mountain pasture, often in rings. September to November, a few days after decent rain.

Confused with

• Deadly dapperlingLepiota brunneoincarnatadangerous

  Cap

  2–6 cm, cream with concentric pinkish-brown to wine-coloured scales

  Gills, pores or pits

  Gills white to cream, free

  Stem

  Short, white above, wine-brown scales in zigzag bands below; fleeting ring

  Flesh when cut

  White in the cap, pinkish to wine-coloured in the stem

  Spore print

  White

  Where and when

  Lawns, parks, verges and path edges; mainly autumn

  How to tell them apart: A 2–6 cm cap and a fleeting ring, against the parasol's thick double ring; never pick one with a cap under 10 cm.

  Deadly, and the reason for the one rule not to break with parasols: never pick one whose cap is under 10 cm. It is small, 2 to 6 cm, its scales a pinkish brown, with a faint, woolly ring that soon goes — nothing like the parasol's thick, double, sliding ring. Below it the stem carries brown scales that can look like the snakeskin pattern, so the stem will not rule it out. It grows in the same grass, in parks and along path edges, and it has killed whole families in Spain.

• Brown shaggy parasolChlorophyllum brunneumdangerous

  Cap

  8–18 cm, whitish with coarse concentric brown scales, smooth brown centre

  Gills, pores or pits

  Gills white to cream, free

  Stem

  Smooth, no snakeskin, whitish to brownish; large rimmed bulb; ringed

  Flesh when cut

  White; turns bright orange-red when cut

  Spore print

  White

  Where and when

  Rich, disturbed ground: gardens, compost, woodland clearings; autumn

  How to tell them apart: A smooth stem with no snakeskin, ending in a rimmed bulb, and flesh that reddens when cut; the parasol has a snakeskin stem and unchanging flesh.

  Very similar at a distance, but the flesh reddens distinctly when cut, the stem is smooth with no snakeskin, and it ends in a rimmed bulb. It causes strong digestive upset in a good number of people, though others tolerate it.

When it has been found

Finds recorded in Spain, by month: 2,717 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.

In guides and news

• Soria: permit and rules for mushroom picking

  Permits and rules · October 1, 2026

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).