Infundibulicybe geotropa (trooping funnels)
Gotta love these creamy big mushrooms trooping through the forest. You’ll see them forming trooping lines, rings, or scattered groups.
They’re a creamy colour all over, often getting rain spots on the caps. They have thick and very dense stipes often with a bit of fuzz at the base. The gills are decurrent. They can reach up to around 20cm wide when mature though I have found bigger once! One of the key features is the umbo (bump) in the centre of the cap - sometimes easier to feel than see. This is almost always present and the easiest a way to distinguish from lookalikes. On rare occasion I don’t see an umbo, but it’s usually a very reliable feature.
They’re edible and rather good. I cut the stipes into scallop like discs. Younger specimens are preferable but I like them at all sizes!
Lookalikes to watch out for:
Clitocybe nebularis - often mistaken as they also form big groups in woods. They have a cloudy grey cap, white gills, and no umbo.
Clitocybe rivulosa - deadly - much smaller, white, and without such decurrent gills, and no umbo. Prefer grassland.
Clitocybe phyllophila - deadly - much smaller, white and slightly translucent, and no umbo.
TLDR; trooping funnels are cream all over including the gills, with an umbo!
