Parasol Mushroom

The parasol mushroom, Macrolepiota procera, is a large basidiomycete fungus whose fruiting body resembles an open parasol at maturity. Its egg-shaped young cap flattens out as it grows, reaching up to twenty five centimeters wide, and sits atop a tall stem patterned like snakeskin, with white gills beneath. Found across temperate Eurasia in pastures and woodland, it is a well regarded edible mushroom, though it must be carefully distinguished from toxic lookalikes such as Chlorophyllum molybdites.