Fairy ring champignon

Quick facts

Scientific name

Marasmius oreades (Bolton) Fr. (1836)

Family

Marasmiaceae

Edibility

Edible

Season

Apr–Nov

Usual altitude

183–1,495 m

Dangerous look-alike

Fool's funnel · Clitocybe rivulosa

IUCN Red List

Not evaluated (NE)

Where it grows

Rings and arcs on short grass: meadows, verges, parks, golf courses and grazed pasture. The grass of the ring grows darker and taller than the grass around it, which is how the ring is spotted from a distance. Its season is very long, April to November, and it answers a single rain within days; afterwards it dries in place and revives with the next water.

Confused with

• Fool's funnelClitocybe rivulosadangerous

  The serious confusion, and it grows in the same rings on the same turf. It is white or chalky white, its gills crowded and running down the stem, and the stem snaps cleanly instead of twisting. It contains muscarine in quantity and causes severe poisoning.

• Deadly dapperlingLepiota brunneoincarnatadangerous

  Deadly, and it shares the fairy ring champignon's habitat: urban lawns, parks and path edges. It has a ring, pinkish-brown scales on the cap and crowded white gills — none of which the champignon has, and it has no ring at all.

When it has been found

Finds recorded in Spain, by month: 1,326 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).