Community find
Mower's Mushroom
Panaeolus foenisecii
- Group
- gilled mushroom
- Spore print
- Dark brown to smoky brown.
- Size
- Cap diameter 1-3 cm; stipe length 4-10 cm, width 1-3 mm.
- Season
- Late spring to autumn.
- Habitat
- Commonly found in lawns, meadows, and grassy areas after rain.
- Distribution
- Cosmopolitan distribution; found worldwide in temperate grassy habitats.
- Key characteristics
- Cap is convex to broadly campanulate, brown to reddish-brown, often hygrophanous. Gills are dark brown and mottled. Stipe is slender, fragile, and brownish. Spore print is dark brown.
- Fruiting body
- Cap is 1-3 cm broad, hygrophanous, fading as it dries. Gills are adnate, broad, and mottled with dark brown. Stipe is 4-8 cm long, 2-3 mm thick, hollow, and often has a pruinose (powdery) surface near the top.
- How to recognise it
- Look for a hygrophanous cap that changes color as it dries, mottled dark brown gills, and a dark brown (not jet black) spore print.
- Look-alikes
- Panaeolus cinctulus (which has a jet black spore print) and various species of Conocybe (which usually have orange-brown spore prints).
- Ecological role
- Saprophytic, breaking down organic matter in soil and grass thatch.
- Notes
- It is one of the most common mushrooms found in suburban lawns. It is of interest to mycologists due to its extremely wide global distribution and ability to thrive in man-made environments like golf courses and parks.
