Edible, wild fungi of South Australia post #3 Button Mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus)

Hi everybody! Here's the third in this early season ID guide for South Australian edible mushrooms. This one goes back to that, sometimes confusing, genus, Agaricus with the Button Mushroom.

I'll be breaking up the series of posts about Agaricus mushrooms with other, very different mushrooms otherwise all of the descriptions will blur into each other. The first post is about the most important of the Agaricus to learn to ID, as it is the only local toxic one and has a couple of very distinctive features. Here's a link to that post to refresh your memory - Yellow Stainer

This week's mushroom is much more pleasant! Presenting the Button Mushroom Agaricus bisporus!

Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)

Phylum: Basidiomycota. Class: Agaricomycetes. Order: Agaricales. Family: Agaricaceae

The Button Mushrooms that you find when you are foraging are wild versions of the cultivated Button Mushrooms that you find at your farmer’s market or supermarket. Supermarket mushrooms are cultivated varieties of Agaricus bisporus, it is a mushroom that has had a long association with our kitchens.

Button Mushrooms are found on grass and lawns, especially when the area is well manured. Firm, immature specimens are the best to eat.

Identifying the Button Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) - a summary:

• The cap starts hemispherical and flattens with age
• The cap has firm white flesh that bruises light pink
• Gills are crowded and free from the stem
• Gills start off pink in immature specimens and become a dark brown as they age
• Stem is solid and bruises a reddish brown. It has a thick, single ring.
• Spore print is dark brow
• Odour is pleasantly ‘mushroomy’

Before you pick any Agaricus mushroom in South Australia, compare the details with those of the Yellow Stainer which was posted about earlier in this series. You can find the link post here - Yellow Stainer. If you have ANY doubts, don't pick it and move on.

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