A pale, cream to whitish Agrocybe of lawns, meadows and roadside grass. Its cap often cracks with age, and the margin is often fringed with veil remnants. It fruits mostly in late spring and early summer and has large spores with a germ pore. It is often recorded under the name Agrocybe dura.
Edibility disputed; not recommended. Some authors call it edible when well cooked, while others report a bitter taste and poor quality. Pale brown-spored grassland mushrooms are easy to confuse with toxic species, and field guides generally advise avoiding this group.
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Habitat
Saprobic in grass on lawns, meadows, fields, roadside verges and gardens, alone, scattered or in groups, sometimes in fairy rings; mainly late spring to early summer, occasionally into fall.
Distribution
Europe, including Britain and Ireland, and North America (MushroomExpert.com collections, as A. dura, from Illinois and Missouri).
Characteristics
Cap: 2.5-8 cm, convex, then flat; tacky when fresh, later dry and bald, often cracking; whitish to cream or dull yellowish at the center; margin often hung with whitish veil fragments. Gills: narrowly attached (adnate to adnexed), close to crowded, whitish to buff, becoming dull grayish or clay brown. Stem: 5-10 cm long, 3-15 mm thick, firm, whitish, browning below; flimsy whitish ring that may darken with spores or disappear. Flesh: white, firm, unchanging. Odor: not distinctive to slightly mealy; taste mild to bitter. Spore print: brown. Spores: about 11-16 x 6-9 µm, ellipsoid with a flattened germ-pore end (MushroomExpert.com, as A. dura; First Nature gives 12-14 x 6-8 µm).
