PARASOL MUSHROOM 2013

MUSHROOMS -Parasol Mushroom
lat. Macrolepiota procera (Scop. ex Fr.) Singer

Parasol mushroom has a very interesting look: while it is still not fully grown it resembles to drum mallets and is therefore called by Italians maza da tamburo. When it is fully developed and grown it resembles a parasol and our Adriatic neighbours call it also parasole. Slovenians find that it resembles a large umbrella - and therefore call it orijaški dežnik - in Germany it is called Parasolpilz or Riesenschirmling, the Czechs call it bedl’a vysoká, and the French use several names for it: coulemelle, St. Michel, parasol, nez de chat and other. From numerous above mentioned names we can conclude that the parasol mushroom is a generally known and widespread mushroom sort.
With reference to the way of nourishment and life the parasol mushroom belongs to saprophytes since it uses dead organic matter for its development. This means that it finds nourishment in fell off leaves, needle-shaped leaves and decomposed remains of trees in deciduous, evergreen and mixed forests and groves as well as at outskirts of forests but can also grow on meadows and pastures tens of meters away from forest outskirts. In Croatia it is a very common and generally known mushroom sort and mushroom fans pick it with pleasure.
Within the genus of Macrolepiota there are a number of similar but smaller, parasol kinds of mushrooms for which the parasol mushroom can easily be mistaken. Insufficiently experienced mushroom pickers confuse it with North-American parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota prominens), slender parasol (Macrolepiota gracilenta), Kornad’s parasol (Macrolepiota konradii), shaggy parasol (Macrolepiota rhacodes), etc. Fortunately, all mentioned similar kinds of parasol mushrooms are edible and therefore even if mistaken for another kind there is no danger of poisoning. However, similar to parasol mushroom are also poisonous big parasol mushrooms, e.g. poisonous parasol (Macrolepiota venenata) and gray shaggy parasol (Macrolepiota rhacodes var. hortensis) whose flesh, in contrast to parasol mushroom becomes red in cross section when left exposed to air. All small parasols, with the cap diameter not bigger than five to six centimetres, e.g. chestnut dapperling (Lepiota castanea), deadly dapperling (Lepiota bronneoincarnata), lepiot lilacea dapperling (Lepiota lilacea), star dapperling (Lepiota helveola), fatal dapperling (Lepiota subincarnata) and stinking dapperling (Lepiota cristata) are very poisonous or deadly.
Basic morphologic features of parasol mushroom are very specific and are easily remembered. However, it should never be forgotten that insufficiently experienced mushroom pickers often make mistake and poison the whole family.
The cap of the parasol mushroom can be 10 to 30 cm wide and in the beginning has the shape of a half-sphere or an egg and later spreads evenly. The middle of a cap is bluntly convex, tough and dark brown.
The basic cap colour is greyish-brown and the entire surface is covered with fibres and large brown crusts. The gills (lamellae) beneath the cap (hymenium) are thick, white and soft and hold to the stem by means of a collarium and stand therefore 1.5 mm away from the stem. The stem can be 20-40 cm tall, it is slim, cylindrical and fibrous and in the central part tubularly hollow and though. On the basis it is bulbously nub and along the whole length serpentinely brown mottled. On the upper part of the stem there is a double thick coronet that can be moved on the stem upwards and downwards like a ring on the finger. The body of the parasol mushroom is white and soft and does not change the colour in cross section when left exposed to air. The smell is pleasant; the taste is good and reminds of hazelnut. The spores are elliptical and the mass of spores is white. In contact with phenol the body immediately becomes brown and in contact with guaiacol it becomes soon bluish-green.
Parasol mushroom is edible and of excellent quality but only its cap can be used since its stem is fibrous and tough and therefore hardly digestible. It can be prepared in many ways and when bread crumbed is a real delicacy.

Romano Božac, Ph.D.