Soapy knightTricholoma saponaceum

The soapy knight (Tricholoma saponaceum) is a common knight of broadleaf and mixed forests with a distinctive smell of cheap laundry soap — hence the Latin epithet saponaceum ("soapy") and its folk name "soapy". The smell is so distinct that you recognize it from the very first encounter — it is reminiscent of "a bar of tar soap" or Soviet-era toilet soap. The cap is 5-12 cm across, fleshy, convex to flattened-expanded, gray, olive-gray, greenish-gray, ranging to brown.

Inedible — even if someone can stand the soapy smell of the raw mushroom, the cooked flesh tastes soapy too, with a bitterish aftertaste, and the smell does not go away when cooked; sometimes it even gets stronger. People don't pick it, and the literature marks it as "inedible because of its smell and taste". It usually causes no serious gastrointestinal reactions, but it has absolutely no culinary value whatsoever.

An interesting variability in coloration: about 10 morphological forms of Tricholoma saponaceum have been described in Europe, differing in color (from gray-white to olive-black), size and smell. They all share one key feature — a soapy smell. In young fruiting bodies the smell is weaker; in mature ones it is distinct.

The main thing is to recognize it so you don't confuse it with the edible gray knights (T. portentosum, T. terreum). The combination of gray cap + soapy smell + reddish-pinkish spots on the stem flesh when cut is diagnostic. Reddish coloring of the flesh when broken is a second characteristic feature (unlike T. portentosum, whose flesh stays white).

In Ukraine, Tricholoma saponaceum is common in broadleaf and mixed forests: the Carpathians, Prykarpattia, Polissia, the forest-steppe. A mycorrhizal partner of beech, oak, hornbeam and spruce. Season: August — November. Often grows in groups of 5-15 on the forest floor.