Ashen Knight

Tricholoma virgatum

Coniferous forests, more often pine forests, rarely deciduous woods. Autumn, rarely summer.

Medium-sized fruiting bodies. Cap 3-8 cm across, smooth, slightly shiny, acutely conical, grey, bluish-grey, with blackish streaks, not fleshy. Gills whitish, grey, adnate. Stem 7-12x1-1.3 cm, grey, brownish. Flesh thin, whitish, odourless, with a rather sharp, burning taste. Characteristic features: cap conical, with a pointed top, stem long. Grows singly, favouring mossy pine forests. According to some authors it is poisonous, according to others inedible. Common. By its pointed conical cap and long stem it is easily distinguished from other grey knights (the greyish-brown, mottled, grey and even blackish-green knights).