Fairy Ring Mushroom

The fairy ring mushroom is a small gilled fungus of lawns, meadows and even coastal dunes in Europe and North America, fruiting from May to November in Britain and all year round in warmer climates. Its cap, one to five centimetres across, starts bell-shaped and flattens with age while keeping a slight central bump; it is buff, tan or reddish, and changes colour markedly as it dries. The stem is pale and tough, and the widely spaced gills smell of cyanide and leave a white spore print. It comes up in clusters, arcs and rings: the living threads at the ring's edge make the grass there lusher and greener, while the spent ones inside leave a brown patch. In the British Isles such a ring was said to mark where the faeries had danced, and Kynes gathers it with the other mushrooms that folklore tied to lightning, witches, goblins and, in parts of Germany, fertility and love potions. It is a choice edible with a chewy texture and a meaty, spicy taste: the tough stems are cut off and the caps threaded on strings to dry, then used in soups, stews and even biscuits. Care is needed all the same, since it can be mistaken for the toxic Clitocybe dealbata and Clitocybe rivulosa, whose gills are crowded and run down the stem.