Alan Davidson

Fairy Ring Mushroom

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

fairy ring mushroom Marasmius oreades, a small, common, edible mushroom which is also called champignon (the general French name for mushroom, transferred in English to this one species), champion (in the north of England), and Scotch bonnet.

The cap is cream or very pale brown, conical, and seldom much more than 3 cm (a generous inch) in diameter. Under it the gills are distinctively wide spaced and paler in colour. The stem, also pale, is thin and tough. The mushroom resists drought by shrivelling up (the meaning of its generic name is ‘shriveller’) and filling out again when it rains. It grows in open fields from summer to autumn. It is found in N. America and Australia as well as throughout Europe.