So after a very busy fall where I barely got to get out on a trail, let alone look for mushrooms, I happened to find a very intriguing Agaricus patch in my aunt's yard, butting up against a cow pasture, under some pines. After we got back from Thanksgiving dinner, I ran out and grabbed a couple specimens for closer inspection.
This is a pretty typical Agaricus species with gills pink to brown as the mushroom ages, cap and stipe white, visible annulus (ring) around stipe but no significant volva at the base. There were several individual mushrooms popping up in soil from the same area, all in good condition. Had these been toxic Amanita species, we'd see white gills, and usually a prominent volva. (cup) Amanita caps often tend to flatten out more than Agaricus species when mature. And the deadly Amanitas have white spores, as opposed to the brown spores of Agaricus I suspect I will find in my spore print in the morning.
So--did I eat it? Click under the cut to find out!
First things first--I ruled out the only significantly toxic Agaricus commonly found in this part of the Northwest, A. xanthodermus and A. hondensis. There would be bright yellow staining at the base of the stipe that typifies A. xanthodermus and, less dramatically, A. hondensis; this one instead had a few spots of light red-brown after an hour. The mystery Agaricus also had a pleasant, mild, earthy aroma, both when raw and cooked, lacking the unpleasant chemical smell associated with A. xanthodermus and the similarly toxic A. hondensis. And while xanthodermus' stipe is smooth near the base, my find has a lightly textured/shaggy appearance all the way down.
While my Agaricus had a bit of yellowish tint to the cap, it lacks the darker scaling common to A. hondensis. Moreover, the underside of the annulus has the typical "cogwheel" shape of the edible A. arvensis, or horse mushroom, rather than the heavier, thicker "skirt" shaped annulus of hondensis. That cogwheel also helped me rule out another edible species, Agaricus campestris.
With all that said, I am confident enough this is A. arvensis that I thoroughly cooked three tiny bites and ate them (they were quite good, no unpleasant taste associated with the toxic species I mentioned). At worst, if I am wrong, I may have a small upset stomach and regret that I did not, in fact, find a delicious patch of edible Agaricus to take home, but I would not have gone to the extent of eating a sample if I had any suspicion I would be eating something poisonous.
That being said, please keep in mind that I am an experienced forager and nature ID instructor, I am meticulous in my identifications, and I am a firm believer in "when in doubt, throw it out". In fact, I have walked past many patches of unidentified Agaricus because I didn't have the time to suss out species before they'd go bad, and I didn't feel like taking a chance on a bellyache. Although I haven't yet had A. arvensis prior to now, I knew enough about it to know there were multiple regional toxic lookalikes in several genera including Agaricus, Amanita, and Clitocybe.
If you're new to foraging, please do not eat anything you are not absolutely, 100% sure is something edible. I'm taking a bit of a chance with the genus Agaricus because these mushrooms can sometimes be difficult to identify down to species level, but I've identified key features that rule out toxic species and point toward a well-known edible one. And if it isn't A. arvensis, it is most likely to be another edible--or at least not toxic--Agaricus.
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Agaricus mushroom I found in the garden that insects naturally made resemble the kodama from Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke💀😱👻 (just a li more cursed)
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Inky stems as long as my foot, squirrels drying mushrooms for winter, and a mushroom so forceful it just impaled its self through any wood in the way. All that and more.
