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Harmless🍽️ Edible

🍄 Fairy ring mushroom

Marasmius oreades · Marasmiaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🫒 Mediterranean🏔️ Mountains🍁 North America
🧠 To remember it"It bends, it doesn't break" — the tough stem of the fairy ring mushroom separates it by touch from its brittle deadly lookalikes.
Fairy ring mushroom — Marasmius oreades

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Small lawn mushroom forming characteristic fairy rings, remarkable for the toughness of its stem which can dry out completely and then revive after rain — but its lawn habitat makes it grow right alongside deadly white Clitocybe species.

  1. cap 2-5 cm, beige to light brown, central umbo, fading (paling) as it dries
  2. gills cream-white, SPACED (few in number), notched, free
  3. stem thin, fibrous, and VERY tough, can be twisted without breaking (pliable like leather)
  4. spore print white
  5. grows in distinct FAIRY RINGS on mown lawns
  6. pleasant smell of dried hay or almond
Sizecap 2-5 cm, stem 3-6 cm
FloweringMay-October
Habitatlawns, mown pastures, golf courses, often in visible circles

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Deadly white Clitocybes (including the fool's funnel) (Clitocybe dealbata et espèces voisines)deadly (muscarinic syndrome, possible heart and respiratory damage at high doses)

To tell them apart: deadly white Clitocybes have very CROWDED and DECURRENT gills (unlike the distant gills of the fairy ring mushroom), a brittle, non-tough stem (the fairy ring mushroom twists without breaking, a crucial tactile test), a uniform whitish to pale gray color (never brown-beige), and do not necessarily form neat rings; if harvesting from a lawn, SORT every single stem by twisting it: if it snaps cleanly, discard it as a precaution

Fool's funnel (Clitocybe dealbata)none for the fairy ring mushroom, classic confusion in fairy rings

To tell them apart: the fairy ring mushroom has wider spaced gills and an elastic, tough stem (it springs back into shape if bent, unlike the brittle stem of the Clitocybe); the fool's funnel has crowded, decurrent, more fragile gills

🍽️ Eating it

Partscap only (discard the stem, which is too fibrous)
SeasonMay-October
Tasteflavorful, nutty, highly valued dried and powdered as a seasoning

Preparation : always cooked; dries remarkably well (can revive after soaking even after several weeks of dry weather); carefully sort to exclude any white Clitocybe mixed into the same ring

Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.