Freckled Dapperling / Summer / Autumn / Toxic
Scientific Name
Echinoderma asperum
Common Names
Freckled Dapperling
Family
Agaricaceae
Habitat
In deciduous woodland and growing from woodchip in gardens and park.
Description
A fairly common and easy to identify mushroom, they are listed as edible in some guides but they react badly with alcohol and some believe that they are poisonous so not recommended for the kitchen.
Identifying Features:
Cap:
Pale brown, getting darker towards the centre and covered in pyramid-shaped scales. Convex when young they flatten out almost completely with age.
Stem:
Off white to tan in colour and dotted with brown scales. Around halfway up the stem is a skirt, the skirt is smooth and cottony but on its underside where it was attached to the cap margin, they are brown scales.
Gills:
The gills are white, very crowded and free. When the mushrooms are very young they have a veil covering the gills which breaks away to form the skirt.
Smell:
Like rubber.
Spores:
White.
Known hazards
One to avoid their edibility is unknown, they react adversely with alcohol and the smell is off putting.
Potential lookalikes
They are quite distinctive so really only other members of the Echinoderma family, all of which should be avoided.
From a distance, they do look a bit like a Blusher (Amanita rubescens) but this has lighter coloured scales, bruises red when damaged and lacks the off-putting smell.
Extra Notes
The name Echinoderma asperum comes from the Greek ’echinos’ meaning a hedgehog or sea-urchin and ‘derma’ meaning skin, referring to the spiny cap surface. Asper is Latin for rough again in reference to the skin
Leave a Reply