''Panaeolus foenisecii'', commonly called the mower's mushroom, haymaker or brown hay mushroom, is a very common and widely distributed little brown mushroom often found on lawns and is not an edible mushroom. In 1963 Tyler and Smith found that this mushroom contains

serotonin Serotonin () or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) is a monoamine neurotransmitter. Its biological function is complex and multifaceted, modulating mood, cognition, reward, learning, memory, and numerous physiological processes such as vomiting and vas ...

5-HTP 5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), also known as oxitriptan, is a naturally occurring amino acid and chemical precursor as well as a metabolic intermediate in the biosynthesis of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Uses 5-HTP is sold over the counter i ...

and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid. In many field guides it is listed as psychoactive; however, the mushroom does not produce any hallucinogenic effects.

Description

*Cap: 1 to 3 cm across, conic to convex, chestnut brown to tan,

hygrophanous The adjective hygrophanous refers to the color change of mushroom tissue (especially the pileus surface) as it loses or absorbs water, which causes the pileipellis to become more transparent when wet and opaque when dry. When identifying hygrop ...

, often with a dark band around the margin which fades as the mushroom dries. *Gills: Broad, adnate, brown with lighter edges, becoming mottled as the spores mature. *Stipe: 3 to 8 cm by 1 to 3 mm, fragile, hollow, beige to light brown, fibrous,

pruinose Pruinescence , or pruinosity, is a "frosted" or dusty-looking coating on top of a surface. It may also be called a pruina (plural: ''pruinae''), from the Latin word for hoarfrost. The adjectival form is pruinose . Entomology In insects, a "blo ...

, and slightly striate. *Taste: A slightly unpleasant nutty fungal taste. *Odor: Nutty, slightly unpleasant. *Spore print: Dark walnut brown. *Microscopic features: Spores measure 12–17 x 7–11 μm, subfusoid to lemon shaped, rough,

dextrinoid In mycology a tissue or feature is said to be amyloid if it has a positive amyloid reaction when subjected to a crude chemical test using iodine as an ingredient of either Melzer's reagent or Lugol's solution, producing a blue to blue-black staini ...

, with an apical germ pore.

Cheilocystidia A cystidium (plural cystidia) is a relatively large cell found on the sporocarp of a basidiomycete (for example, on the surface of a mushroom gill), often between clusters of basidia. Since cystidia have highly varied and distinct shapes that ar ...

subfusoid to cylindric or subcapitate, often wavy, up to 50 μm long. Pleurocystidia absent, but some authors report inconspicuous "pseudocystidia". The

pileipellis The pileipellis is the uppermost layer of hyphae in the pileus of a fungal fruit body In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowe ...

a cellular cuticle with subglobose elements and has pileocystidia.

Habitat

The species may be the most common to appear in lawns in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. It is also found on lawns along the east coast.

Gallery

The following two images are of ''Panaeolus foenisecii'' in the wild with two magnifications of the spore print. File:Panaeolina foenisecii darv.jpg, Wild ''Panaeolus foenisecii'' showing banded cap Image:Pan.foe.darvin.underside.jpg, stipe and gills Image:Panaeolina.foenisecii.spores.1000x.dic.jpg, ''Panaeolus foenisecii'' spores magnified Image:Panaeolina.foenisecii.spores.1000x.full-frame.jpg, ''Panaeolus foenisecii'' spores

Similar species

Similar species include ''

Agaricus campestris ''Agaricus campestris'' is a widely eaten gilled mushroom closely related to the cultivated button mushroom ''Agaricus bisporus''. It is commonly known as the field mushroom or, in North America, meadow mushroom. Taxonomy This species was ori ...

'', '' Conocybe apala'', '' Marasmius oreades'', ''

Psathyrella candolleana ''Candolleomyces candolleanus'' (formerly known as ''Psathyrella candolleana'') is mushroom in the family Psathyrellaceae. It is commonly found growing in small groups around stumps and tree roots on lawns and pastures in Europe and North America ...

'', and ''

Psathyrella gracilis ''Psathyrella corrugis'', is the type species of the basidiomycete fungus genus ''Psathyrella'' and family Psathyrellaceae. Originally described from Europe as ''Agaricus corrugis'', the species is considered non-toxic but lacking in flesh, flavo ...

''. It is sometimes mistaken for the psychedelic ''

Panaeolus cinctulus ''Panaeolus cinctulus'', syn. ''Panaeolus subbalteatus'', commonly known as the banded mottlegill, weed Panaeolus or is a very common, widely distributed psilocybin mushroom. According to American naturalist and mycologist David Arora, ''Panaeolus ...

'' or ''

Panaeolus olivaceus ''Panaeolus olivaceus'' is a widely distributed, seldom identified, little brown mushroom that contains the hallucinogen psilocybin; it is often mistaken for ''Panaeolina foenisecii'' and is distinguished by its black spore print and darker gill ...

'', both of which share the same habitat and can be differentiated by their jet black spores. This is probably why ''Panaeolus foenisecii'' is occasionally listed as a psychoactive species in older literature.

References

External links