Edible
Fairy Ring Mushroom
Marasmius oreades
Fairy ring mushrooms have a smooth tan cap without scales, widely spaced gills attached to the stem, a tough stem and no ring zone. They grow in rings in grass.
Deadly Dapperling
Lepiota subincarnata
Deadly
Also called lepiota josserandii.
The deadly dapperling is a small Lepiota with a pale cap covered in pinkish brown scales. It contains amatoxins, the same toxins as the death cap. It is one of several small lepiotas that turn up in lawns, gardens and woodland edges and are hard to tell apart.
Lepiota subincarnata
Photo coming
The tell
Small pale cap broken into concentric pinkish brown scales, white free gills, and a white spore print.
Field marks
What to look at
Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.
- Cap
- Convex to flat, whitish to pale pink, broken into small concentric pinkish brown to reddish brown scales, darker and more solid at the center.
- Underside
- Gills white to cream, crowded and free from the stem.
- Stem
- Whitish to pinkish buff, with small pinkish brown scales below a faint, cottony ring zone. No membranous ring and no cup.
- Flesh
- Thin and whitish.
- Spore print
- White.
- Size
- Cap 0.75 to 2 inches wide (2 to 5 cm); stem 1 to 2.5 inches tall (2.5 to 6 cm).
Where and when
Where and when it grows
- Habitat
- Lawns, gardens, parks, woodland edges and leaf litter.
- Grows on
- Soil and decaying plant debris.
- Season
- Late summer through fall.
- Range
- Scattered records across North America; small lepiotas are hard to separate, and the distribution of this species is poorly documented.
Lookalikes
What the deadly dapperling gets confused with
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
EdibleParasol Mushroom
Macrolepiota procera
Parasols are much larger, with a tall snakeskin-patterned stem and a thick movable ring. Small lepiotas are rarely more than 2 inches across.
Edible, upsets some peopleShaggy Parasol
Chlorophyllum rhacodes
Shaggy parasols are much larger, with a thick double-edged ring and flesh that turns orange to reddish when cut.
Edibility
What the field guides say
Deadly
The deadly dapperling contains amatoxins, the same toxins found in the death cap. They shut down protein production in liver and kidney cells. Symptoms usually begin 6 to 24 hours after the meal with severe vomiting and diarrhea, followed by liver and kidney failure. Several small Lepiota species contain amatoxins; field guides treat the small scaly lepiotas as a deadly group.
This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.
FAQ
Questions about the deadly dapperling
Is Lepiota subincarnata poisonous?
Yes, it is deadly. It contains amatoxins, the same toxins as the death cap, which destroy liver and kidney cells. Symptoms are delayed by several hours after eating.
What does a deadly dapperling look like?
It is a small mushroom with a pale cap covered in pinkish brown scales arranged in rings around a darker center. It has white gills, a scaly stem with a faint ring zone, and a white spore print.
Are small lepiotas in lawns dangerous?
Several small Lepiota species contain amatoxins, including this one. They are hard to separate from each other without a microscope, so field guides treat the small scaly lepiotas as deadly as a group.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Lepiota subincarnata
Beaty Biodiversity Museum, University of British Columbia
- Lepiota subincarnata
MykoWeb, California Fungi
- Lepiota subincarnata
Index Fungorum
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