Deadly Dapperling

Description

The deadly dapperling is a small mushroom with a cap a few centimetres across, covered with brown, wine-brown or violet-brown scales on a pale pink background, usually with a larger scale in the centre. It has white, free gills, a thin pinkish-brown stem with ring-like scales and a narrow ring that disappears with time. The flesh turns slightly red and smells fruity.

It grows from July to October at woodland edges, in parks and gardens, on lawns and on humus-rich soil. In Poland it is rare and is on the Red List, but it is more common in southern Europe.

Because of where it grows it is easily confused with the fairy ring champignon or the grey knight, which has caused poisonings. It contains amatoxins like the death cap. Do not pick small dapperlings for eating; the poison cannot be removed in the kitchen.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 2.7–6 cm. At first convex with a blunt umbo (or hemispherical), later spread out, slightly concave in older ones; margin inrolled. Skin cracked into granular scales: brown, wine-brown or violet-brown scales on a pale pink background; red-brown when young, fading with age to pale pinkish-brown. Usually a large, unbroken scale in the centre. Flesh in the cap fleshy.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills free (not attached to the stem), pale cream to white, sparse, sometimes forked, with small intermediate gills; edges very finely crenulate.

Stem

Height 2–5 cm, diameter 0.3–0.9 cm, cylindrical. Narrow ring disappearing in mature fruiting bodies. Above the ring whitish to pinkish-brown, below it pinkish-brown to pale violet, with several broken ring-like brown scales arranged one above another (also described as a dark brown ring zone).

Flesh

White, turning slightly red when damaged and when cut. Smell fruity (described as the smell of unripe fruit); taste mild — it must never be tested; do not taste the flesh of any suspicious mushroom.

Spore print and spores

Spore print white. Spores elliptic to oval, 6–9 × 3.5–5 µm (descriptions give different ranges), dextrinoid (red-brown in Melzer's reagent).

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. The mode of nutrition is not described (dapperlings are usually saprotrophs); grows singly or in small groups at woodland edges, in parks and gardens, on bare humus-rich soil, often in places of human activity, also on lawns and fields.

Distribution. Rare in Central Europe, more frequent in Southern Europe and in warm regions of Europe, also in Great Britain and Germany; in Asia from Turkey and Iran to eastern China. Rare in Poland: by 2003 described only from Roztocze National Park; on the Red List of Plants and Fungi of Poland (2006) it has status V (vulnerable). It also appears on threatened lists in Germany and Denmark. Not legally protected.

Fruiting. From July to October.

What can it be confused with?

• Marasmius oreades (fairy ring champignon) — Grows on lawns (often in rings), cap light brown without scales.
• Tricholoma terreum (grey knight) — A mistake with the grey knight has been described (poisoning of a family in Salon-de-Provence); detailed differences — no data.
• Macrolepiota procera (parasol mushroom) — Sometimes confused; detailed differences — no data.
• Agaricus bisporus (button mushroom) — A poisoning in Turkey has been described after it was collected together with button mushrooms; differences — no data.
• Lepiota brunneolilacea, Lepiota helveola (flesh-pink dapperling) — Also poisonous, small dapperlings; L. brunneolilacea has a greenish-grey ring and grows on sandy soils.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• It was described in 1889 by the Swiss botanists Chodat and Martin, who found it on a roadside in Geneva.
• Amanitin can be detected in urine 36–48 hours after ingestion.
• In Poland until 2003 it was known only from Roztocze National Park.
• In 2013 in Turkey one person survived poisoning after eating five specimens collected together with button mushrooms.