''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,

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, 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, with an apical germ pore. Cheilocystidia 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. It covers the trama, the fleshy tissue of the fruit body. The pileipellis is more or less synonymous with the cuticle, but the cuticle generally describes t ...

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'', '' 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 Ame ...

'', and '' Psathyrella gracilis''. 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, ''Panaeol ...

'' or '' Panaeolus olivaceus'', 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