A great Spring mushroom that can usually be found several weeks either side of St. George’s day.
Home / Mushroom Guide /
St. George’s Mushroom
(68 votes, average: 3.59 out of 5)
Loading…
St. George’s Mushroom
| Mushroom Type | |
| Common Names | St. George’s Mushroom (EN), Pengrwm Calan Mai (CY), Gęśnica Wiosenna (PL), Májusi Pereszke (HU) |
| Scientific Name | Calocybe gambosa |
| Season Start | Apr |
| Season End | May |
| Average Mushroom height (CM) | 5-8 |
| Average Cap width (CM) | 6-10 |
Please note that each and every mushroom you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.
Cap
6-10 cm. Spherical to convex then flattening and becoming uneven. White/cream to buff/yellow.
Gills
Gills white/pale cream. Crowded and roughly the same height along their length until becoming much shallower before reaching the stem (emarginate). The gills are generally very shallow as can be seen in the ‘Flesh’ image below.
Stem
5-8 cm long, 2-3 cm dimeter. White/cream usually stout and thicker towards the base, no skirt.
Flesh
White and soft.
Habitat
Grasslands, beside woodland, lawns and roadsides growing in rings. It is relatively easy to find because it grows in grassy fields usually but not always near trees where, from a distance, you will often see the ring as the grass will be darker and longer there as shown in the adjacent photo.
Possible Confusion
The Deadly Fibrecap (Inosperma erubescens) appears at the end of Spring and early Summer and can look similar but it stains bright red and its cap is covered in fine fibres.
Spore Print
White. Ellipsoid.
Taste / Smell
Good, mushroomy and loses its mealyness a lot when cooked, especially if cooked with a creamy sauce. Must be cooked before consumption.
Frequency
Common, very common some years.
Other Facts
An easy to identify mushroom with its mealy smell and the time of year it fruits.
The St. George’s mushroom can usually be found in the same place every year and seems to grow quite successfully when old mushrooms that are too maggoty for the pot have been carefully placed in the right environment.
In March 2025 the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) added 1000 fungal species to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The IUCN (Global) Conservation Status of St. George’s Mushroom (Calocybe gambosa) is: LC – Least Concern, with stable population. For more information, see on the following link.
Leave a Reply