Chemical Knight

Tricholoma stiparophyllum

Forests, thickets. Autumn.

Fruiting bodies large. Cap 8-12 cm across, irregularly flattened, matt, fibrous, white, turning brownish or yellowish with age, firm. Gills white, crowded, firm, brittle, adnate. Stem 7-12x0.5-1.5 cm, firm, fibrous, white, turning brownish with age. Flesh firm, white, with a pungent smell of rotten wood or gas, bitter. Characteristic features: fruiting bodies with an unpleasant smell and bitter taste. Grows in groups, often in rings around a birch, in deciduous and mixed forests, thickets, among grass. Common. Inedible. Similar to it is the true white knight (T. columbetta), but that one is fleshier, white and spotted pinkish. Rare. Edible. In Lithuania 31 species of Tricholoma have been found, of which 5 are mildly poisonous and 16 edible.