Butter Cap

Description:

Another J-shaped mushroom! Growing in leaf litter under birch, oak, and brambles. 2-2.5cm across the cap and about 10cm high. The Butter Cap is a very common mushroom in the UK and grows in all types of woodland often trooping or found growing in rings. to me it's very similar in appearance to the much rarer Rhodocollybia prolixa which is described as having a dry, red-brown cap and only growing in coniferous woodland. The prefix 'Rhod' means pink (as in Rhododendron) and 'collybia' means a small coin. Butryracea translates as buttery. The Butter Cap is an edible mushroom but generally not reccomended in guides. http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/rhodoc... You should always exercise caution in eating wild fungi, not only for the fact they are easily mis-identified, but also they readily accumulate heavy metals and/or radioactive substances from contaminated ecosystems. Some mycorrhizal species are particularly good at accumulating dangerous substances and, along with many other mushrooms, are suggested by Paul Stamets as great way to restore contaminated ecosystems. He calls it 'mycorestoration'

Notes:

hd7