Agaricus silvaticus

Small forest - mushroom (Agaricus silvaticus )

The little forest mushroom, Small Forest Egerling or Small blood - Egerling (Agaricus silvaticus ) is a species of fungus in the family of mushroom relatives.

Features

Macroscopic characteristics

The hat can reach a diameter of up to 10 cm. He is pale ocher colored and covered with brownish fibrous scales, which usually bear against the hat. The scales are arranged concentrically and the brim toward larger and less in number. The hat shape is globose to campanulate or spread in young mushrooms flat. The stem is up to 8 inches long ( sometimes longer ) and 5 mm thick. It is slightly lighter than the hat, fine-fibred and red starting off with injury. The base may be thickened or bulbous lobes and stuck deep in the ground. The sleeve is thin, membranous and hanging. As she sits on the upper part of the stem it is often stained dark by falling spores. Below the collar of the stem is a bit flaky. The lamellae are initially pale pink and then dark brown ( chocolate brown). In very elderly mushrooms they can also be black. The blades do not touch the stem. The flesh is white and turns red immediately for injuries; later brown. The smell is pleasant, the taste mild to sweet.

Microscopic characteristics

The elliptical spores measure 4.5-6 × 3-3.5 microns.

Ecology and phenology

The little forest mushroom, like all mushroom species a saprobiontischer bottom dwellers, who rarely lives in the needle litter of Norway spruce from other softwoods. It grows mainly in spruce forests or under conifers in mesophilic deciduous forests (mainly beech, rare in oak-hornbeam forests ), in gardens, parks and conifer forests, rarely in pure deciduous forests. It prefers dry to fresh, mineral -and base- rich, partly some nitrogen-containing sand or clay soils.

In Central Europe the fruiting bodies (from May / June) appear from early summer until autumn (November), especially in September and October.

Dissemination

The forest - Egerling occurs in North America ( Mexico and USA), in Asia, in the Canary Islands and in Europe. In Europe the kind of South and South-Eastern Europe is found to Lapland and in the Ukraine. In Germany, it is widespread and common, in flatland he is, however, often limited to anthropogenic sites such as parks and gardens.

Importance

The Little Forest Egerling is edible and is considered a good edible mushroom.