Macrolepiota procera, also known as the Parasol Mushroom, is a spectacularly large, distinctive, pale brownish agaric with a scaly cap, white gills, and a pale brownish stem with a snakeskin pattern and ring. It grows solitary, scattered, or clustered on soil in open grassy places and in mixed woods. The mushroom is in North America commonly confused with Chlorophyllum molybdites (The Vomiter), which is more common there.

Cap pallid brown decorated with darker brown broad scales. It starts off egg-shaped and then bell-shaped until the cap margin detaches from the stripe. The base colour becomes lighter with age. Dark scales appear on top when the brown surface cracks up from the smooth, central bump. The cap flesh is white and does not change significantly when cut. Gills white or pale cream, broad, crowded, free and terminating some distance from the stipe. Stem is distinctive grey-brown with banded markings on a whitish background, long and thin with an onion-shaped base. Above the double-edged ring that often falls off, it is evenly brown and below this, it is irregularly striped in a zigzag pattern. Spore print white or very pale cream.

Microscopic Features: The spores are ellipsoidal in shape, smooth, and have a thick wall. They measure approximately 12-18 x 8-12µm and possess a small germ pore.

Similar species include Chlorophyllum molybdites (The Vomiter) which has a stouter stalk and a greenish spore print.

Note: Multiple "parasol mushrooms" in North America may be identified as the Eurasian species Macrolepiota procera. Many, if not all, of these species are undescribed and unnamed.

Macrolepiota procera on the First Nature Web site.
Macrolepiota procera on the MushroomExpert.Com Web site.
Macrolepiota procera on the www.mushroomknowhow.com Web site.

The fourth photo is by Chrumps and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.