(Lepiota rachodes, Macrolepiota rachodes)
Shaggy Parasol
There are several species of shaggy parasols that make excellent eating, and one that causes very severe indigestion in anyone, namely the green-spored Chlorophyllum molybdites. The latter is common in California and all-but-nonexistent in the Northwest.
These mushrooms reach dinner plate size when expanded. The caps have concentric rings of scales the break apart, while the disk remains brown and unbroken. The taste and preparation closely parallel that of the edible meadow mushroom and other Agaricus species. They are mild-flavored and tender. The caps have scales, not warts. The spore print is white. There is a persistent ring.The scales doe not wash away and cannot be easily peeled off. The stalk is tougher than the cap and requires slower, longer cooking. Try them battered and fried in panko, breadcrumbs or cornmeal or sauteed in butter. They dry and keep well and can be reconstituted for use in soups and broths. Eat only very fresh specimens and try them with sparingly and with caution the first time, as they are a bit more likely than other wild mushrooms to cause indigestion in some people. The shaggy parasol differs from the poisonous Chlorophyllum molybdites in having white spores, white vz greenish-olive gills, more bulbous lower stalk, a much scalier cap, and a habit of growing under trees as opposed to out in open fields. Also the shaggy parasol flesh in the stalk and cap turns yellow-orange if cut or bruised and then distinctly reddish.