Description:
Cap: rounded then expanding to become plano-convex, fleshy with the margin incurved at first, initially pure white, but soon becoming cream-colour and at maturity streaked brownish particularly at the centre.
Stem: white with a simple, very thin, white ring which becomes brownish on rubbing and is easily lost with age or by handling.
Gills: free, pink but finally umber-brown at maturity.
Flesh: white, flushed reddish when cut especially in the stem.
Spore-print: cigar-brown, with hint of purple.
Spores: medium sized, ellipsoid or egg-shaped, smooth, small, 7-8 × 4-5 µm and dark brown under the microscope.
Marginal and facial cystidia: absent. Basidia 4-spored.
Habitat & Distribution: The field-mushroom grows amongst grass in pastures, etc., and also on old lawns where it may form fairy-rings.
General Information: This is the common wild, edible mushroom for which many people have in the past unwisely substituted many quite unrelated species. Deaths have often been caused by lack of careful observation when selecting wild fungi for the table; this only emphasises why white mushrooms found in fields should not be casually eaten.