Field mushroom

The field mushroom (Agaricus campestris) is the classic wild meadow mushroom — the strong-flavoured country cousin of the cultivated white button, which is a close relation in the same genus. A stout, white-to-buff domed cap over gills that flush from bright PINK when young to chocolate-brown as they ripen, it springs up in unimproved pastures and grazed grassland after late-summer and autumn rain, and has been the most gathered and eaten wild mushroom of the British and European countryside for centuries. Its larger meadow relative, the horse mushroom (Agaricus arvensis), is bigger, aniseed-scented and just as prized. Both carry a deeper, earthier, more pronounced mushroom savour than the mild farmed button.