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Harmless🍽️ Edible

🍄 Poplar fieldcap

Cyclocybe aegerita · Strophariaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🫒 Mediterranean
🧠 To remember it“On poplars, in tufts, with a broad white ring” — the poplar fieldcap is one of the safest wood-decay mushrooms you can identify.
Poplar fieldcap — Cyclocybe aegerita

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Wood-decay fungus growing in tufts on poplar stumps and trunks, now widely cultivated under the name "pioppino". The risk of confusion with a toxic species is very low, as other poplar mushrooms have a distinctly different appearance.

  1. fleshy cap, convex then flattened, pale tawny brown to cream, sometimes cracked in the center
  2. gills beige then brownish, adnate to slightly notched
  3. firm, fibrous stem, ocher-brown, bearing a broad, persistent white membranous ring
  4. dark brown spore print
  5. grows in tight tufts on living or dead trunks and stumps of poplars, sometimes willows or plane trees
Sizecap 4-12 cm, stem 4-10 cm
Floweringspring to autumn, sometimes all year round in mild climates
Habitattrunks, stumps, and roots of living or dead poplars

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Destructive pholiota (Hemipholiota populnea (Pholiota destruens))non-toxic but very bitter and inedible

To tell them apart: the destructive pholiota has a thick cap covered with large, irregular tufts of whitish to brownish veil (a very different, rougher appearance), grows on felled poplar trunks, and its flesh has a distinct bitterness that renders it inedible

🍽️ Eating it

Partscap, stem
SeasonMarch-December depending on climate
Tastemild, slightly earthy, prized in Italian cuisine ("pioppino")

Preparation : always cooked; cook it like oyster mushrooms, pan-fried or in a sauce

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.