Shaggy parasol or Blusher

Cap large, 7-20 cm across. Hemispherical at first, then convex-spreading to flat with a small boss. The background color is light grayish-brown, and the surface is covered with coarse brown scales in concentric rings, darker at the center. It looks very much like the parasol mushroom, but the scales curl upward at the edges — a characteristic feature.

The cap is 5-15 cm across, hemispherical in young mushrooms, later becoming convex to flat. The color is pinkish gray-brown, brownish pink, brick, darker in young mushrooms and paler in old ones. The surface is covered with noticeable whitish-grayish wartlike scales (remnants of the universal veil), scattered unevenly. In wet weather it is slightly sticky. The cap edge is smooth.

Gilled hymenophore. Gills crowded, thin, free. Color white at first, cream with age, with a pinkish tinge in old specimens. Damaged gills turn red. Spore print white — this is important for telling it apart from the poisonous Chlorophyllum molybdites (green spore print).

Gilled hymenophore: the gills are whitish, turning pink over time where damaged, free. The spore print is white.

Stem 7-20 cm tall, 1-2.5 cm thick, cylindrical, swollen at the base (a gradually swollen bulb; an abrupt, rimmed bulb belongs to the related Chlorophyllum brunneum, which has no records from Ukraine in GBIF). Color whitish to grayish — no snakeskin pattern (unlike the parasol mushroom). Turns brown where touched or damaged. In the upper part there is a fleshy, movable ring. there is no volva.

The stem is 6-12 cm tall and 1-2 cm thick, cylindrical, with a distinct bulbous swelling at the base. The color is whitish above, with pink or reddish tints lower down. In the upper part there is a white ring with lengthwise grooves and a pinkish tint. The volva is indistinct: it appears as concentric pinkish-white warts on the swollen base (not as a sac).

flesh in the cap is white and soft. a characteristic feature — when cut or damaged it turns red (quickly), then turns brown. This is the fundamental difference from the parasol mushroom, whose flesh does not change color.

The flesh is white, slowly (over 1-5 min) turns pink to wine-red when cut; this is the main diagnostic feature of the species. It turns especially pink where slugs or insects have been feeding. In an old mushroom all the flesh in the lower stem is wine-pink. The smell is faint and pleasantly mushroomy.

Faint, pleasant mushroomy smell. Mild taste — pleasant and mushroomy after boiling.

Faint and pleasantly mushroomy, with no distinctive notes. In old mushrooms, with a slight winey note.