Field mushroom
Agaricus campestris
A white, dry-capped mushroom of open grassland, usually 3–10 cm across, domed then flattening, with a silky to faintly scaly surface. The gills are free of the stem, bright pink when young and darkening through red-brown to chocolate brown, and the short white stem carries a thin, easily lost ring. Flesh is white and may flush faintly pink where cut, never yellow. Well flavoured fried or in soups, but it collapses quickly and does not keep.
Saprotrophic in nutrient-rich short grassland — grazed pasture, meadows, lawns, playing fields and stabilised dunes — appearing in scattered troops or arcs a few days after rain. Common throughout Britain and Ireland. It does not grow in woodland or on wood.
Eat cooked and young; raw or in quantity it disagrees with some people. Young buttons in grass can be taken for the deadly Destroying Angel (Amanita virosa), whose gills stay white at all ages and whose stem base sits in a sac-like volva, and for Fool's Funnel (Clitocybe rivulosa), whose white gills run down the stem and never turn pink. Avoid heavily fouled ground and pasture recently treated with wormers, and split older stems to check for maggots.
Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.
Cap
White to off-white and dry, silky-fibrous and sometimes finely scaly with age, 3–10 cm across. No yellow, ochre or brownish tint develops on handling the cap margin.
Gills
Free from the stem, crowded, bright pink when young, then dull red-brown and finally dark chocolate brown. Gills that remain white at maturity mean the mushroom is not this species.
Stem and ring
Short, white and roughly equal in width, with a thin, fragile ring about halfway up that often rubs off. The base simply tapers into the soil with no bag, sac or bulb.
Cut and bruise test
Slice the stem base and wait a minute. White flesh with at most a faint pink flush is right; a spreading chrome-yellow stain is the decisive sign of a Yellow Stainer.
Smell
Clean and pleasantly mushroomy when crushed. Any phenolic, inky or old-rubber note, which strengthens in the pan, means the collection should be discarded rather than sorted.
Updated 2026-08-08T12:03:01.692Z · Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Fungus