Meadow mushroom

Meadow mushroom
	Meadow mushroom ( Agaricus campestris )
Systematics
Class :	Agaricomycetes
Subclass :	Agaricomycetidae
Order :	Mushroom-like (Agaricales)
Family :	Mushroom relatives (Agaricaceae)
Genre :	Mushrooms ( agaricus )
Type :	Meadow mushroom
Scientific name
	Agaricus campestris
	L .: Fr.

The meadow mushroom ( Agaricus campestris ), also known under the name field or meadow gerling , is a leaf mushroom from the family of mushroom relatives. The species includes numerous varieties, some of which are difficult to distinguish, and can easily be confused with other generic representatives. The meadow mushroom was named Mushroom of the Year 2018 by the German Society for Mycology .

features

Young lamellas of the meadow mushroom are flesh pink in color. The rising ring on the stem is fleeting.

The 5–10 (–15) cm wide hat is hemispherical when young, soon convex-arched and often flattened in the middle. The color is white to gray-whitish. With increasing age, the hat shows brownish, flat-lying scales starting from the center. The lamellas on the underside of the hat are already a rich flesh pink early on and finally colored chocolate brown by the dark brown spore powder. The 1–2 cm thick, compact stem is 4–7 cm long and rarely larger than the diameter of the hat. It is white in color and sometimes tinged with ocher yellow at the base. After the hat is raised, a hanging, ephemeral ring remains on the handle . The meat is white, remains unchanged under pressure, smells and tastes unspecific.

Species delimitation

The poisonous carbolic mushroom looks very similar, but has a bright chrome-yellow flesh in the base of the stem and smells unpleasantly of carbolic. Further doubles are the deadly poisonous cone-cap mushroom and the spring-cap mushroom , whose lamellae are always white and the lower end of the stem is in a sack-like shell.

Ecology and phenology

The meadow mushroom grows mainly on moderately fertilized meadows, pastures and paddocks. But it is also found in gardens, parks, green spaces as well as open fields and empty fields. Sometimes it can also be found on nutrient-poor grasslands or juniper heaths - there mostly in places with increased nitrogen input, such as along trails or with deposited grass clippings. Sometimes it can also be found in grassy places in deciduous forests, their edges and in clearings. The fungus has a predilection for basic and neutral soils, and seldom colonizes acidic habitats.

The heat-loving species fructifies in Central Europe from July after extensive rainfall and then usually occurs in large quantities. Very often it grows in witch rings or scattered groups.

distribution

The meadow mushroom is widespread in Australia, the Hawaiian Islands, North America (Mexico, USA, Canada, Greenland), in large parts of Asia, in North Africa, including the Canary Islands and in Europe. In Europe it occurs from the Mediterranean area to Scandinavia and Iceland. The species is widespread in Germany, but is particularly decreasing due to over-fertilization of its locations.

Economical meaning

Meadow mushrooms on Romanian postage stamp, 1958

The meadow mushroom is a popular edible mushroom.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization FAO, around 9 million tons of mushrooms were harvested worldwide in 2018 . Germany produced 73,231 t, Switzerland 7,578 t and Austria 1,900 t.

The following table gives an overview of the five largest producers of mushrooms worldwide, who produced a total of 87.0% of the harvest.

Largest mushroom producers (2018)
rank	country	Quantity (in t )
1	China People's Republic People's Republic of China	6,664,606
2	United States United States	416.050
3	Netherlands Netherlands	300,000
4th	Poland Poland	280.232
5	Spain Spain	166,250
	world	8,993,279

literature

German Josef Krieglsteiner , Andreas Gminder (Hrsg.): Die Großpilze Baden-Württemberg . Volume 5: Mushrooms. Agarics III. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8001-3572-1 .

Web links

Commons : Meadow mushroom ( Agaricus campestris ) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Frank Moser: Meadow mushroom. In: Natur-Lexikon.com . Retrieved June 4, 2013 .

Georg Müller: Photo collection Agaricus campestris . In: picture gallery on pilzepilze.de . Retrieved June 4, 2013 .

Individual evidence

↑ Marcel Bon: Parey's book of mushrooms . 1st edition. Kosmos, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-440-09970-9 (Original title: The mushrooms and toadstools of Britain and Northwestern Europe . Translated by Till R. Lohmeyer).

↑ Ewald Gerhardt: The great FSVO mushroom guide for on the go . BLV, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-405-15147-3 .

^ ^A ^b Crops> Mushrooms and truffles. In: Official FAO production statistics for 2018. fao.org, accessed on March 21, 2020 .

[Bon2005-1] Marcel Bon: Parey's book of mushrooms . 1st edition. Kosmos, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-440-09970-9 (Original title: The mushrooms and toadstools of Britain and Northwestern Europe . Translated by Till R. Lohmeyer).

[Gerhardt2001-2] Ewald Gerhardt: The great FSVO mushroom guide for on the go . BLV, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-405-15147-3 .