Description:
Cap: creamy white, ivory or light buff, slightly darker at the centre with age, fleshy, rounded and with wavy margin, finally expanding to become plane-convex; the margin is incurved and slightly downy at first.
Stem: firm, rather thick, white at the top, creamy or buff below and slightly downy when fresh.
Gills: sinuate to adnexed with a slight decurrent tooth, white to pale buff.
Flesh: with a very strong smell of meal, white and thick.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: small, ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline under the microscope, 5-6 × 3-4 µm and not becoming blue-grey with solutions containing iodine.
Marginal and facial cystidia: absent.
Habitat & Distribution: Found amongst grass in base rich pastures, often in fairly large rings from April to June and on golf-courses particularly those near the sea.
General Information: The common name refers to the early appearance of this agaric; St George’s Day is April 23rd, and this mushroom is found about this time in favourable years, its fruiting often extending into early June, particularly if the fruiting is retarded by a cold and wet spring. It is easily recognised by the pale colour of the cap, strong mealy smell, but particularly by its appearance in spring. In each new year it is probably the first of the larger agarics to appear. This species will be found in most books under the genus Tricholoma, but differs from typical members of this group in the anatomy and chemistry of the gill-tissues.