Button Mushroom

Characteristics: cap 4-10 cm wide, white, greyish-whitish, brownish skin with broad, flat scales on a paler background and fading toward the margins; white stipe, with often thick, protruding ring; flesh faintly reddish; odour pleasant, inconspicuous; spores 6-8 x 5-6 µm; the basidia are always 2-spored.
Synonyms: common mushroom, table mushroom.
Occurrence: May to September; fields, gardens, parks, manured areas, compost heaps, rarely in forests; not common in the open.
Possible confusion: pavement mushroom, field or meadow mushroom, yellow-staining mushroom (poisonous).
Edible: one of the most popular edible mushrooms and the cultivated mushroom par excellence; can also be eaten raw.
Text from "BLV-Handbuch Pilze" by Ewald Gerhardt; with the kind permission of Gräfe und Unzer Verlag