Clustered Domecap / Fried Chicken Mushroom

Lyophyllum decastes – Edible

Scrub, thickets, ditch sides, grassy roadsides, rarely forests. Autumn, grows even after frosts.

Fruiting bodies medium-sized. Cap grows up to 10 cm across, but sometimes reaches even 15 cm across, thin-fleshed, matt, greyish-violet, brown, yellowish-brown, irregularly flattened. Gills white, later pale cream. Stem the colour of the cap, 5-7 cm or even 9-12 cm long and 1-2 (3) cm thick. Flesh thin, tough, brownish, with a faint mealy smell, not bitter. Characteristic features: grows in large colonies of several dozen or even hundreds of fruiting bodies. Grows among grasses, in damp rich deciduous woods, raised bogs, sometimes along drainage ditches. Edible, of no special taste, common.