Stinking dapperlingLepiota cristata

The stinking dapperling (Lepiota cristata), also called the stinking parasol, is poisonous and shouldn't be eaten. It's one of the commonest small lepiotas in Europe and turns up right on lawns, in parks and gardens, beside paths and along woodland edges. The bigger danger isn't the mushroom itself but its lookalikes: some very similar small dapperlings are deadly.

What does it look like? Only several features together identify it. The cap is small, 1.5–5 cm, white or cream, and its tawny to reddish-brown skin cracks into small scales arranged in rings. A smooth dark disc stays in the centre, like an eye. The gills are free, crowded and white. The stem is slender, 2–7 cm tall, pale, flushed pinkish brown towards the base. The ring is white, thin and fragile, and often gone in older specimens. There's no volva at the base. And the smell gives it away: sharp and unpleasant, like rubber or coal gas.

How poisonous is it? Sources don't agree. The British guide First Nature calls it poisonous and possibly seriously so, and the German Mycological Society (DGfM) treats all small dapperlings with brown and red pigments as suspected of containing amatoxins. Yet laboratory tests on Italian (2014) and German (2022) samples found no amatoxins in this species. The poisonings put down to it have been gastric: in Hong Kong in 2004, a family of three had vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhoea half an hour to two hours after the meal, were treated in hospital and recovered. So the answer is simple: it's a poisonous mushroom, not a 'maybe edible' one.

Why is no small parasol safe to eat? Because the small dapperlings include deadly species: the deadly dapperling and Lepiota subincarnata carry amatoxins, the same toxins as the death cap, and Lepiota helveola has caused fatal poisonings in Turkey. They're the same size, also whitish with pinkish-brown scales, and grow on the same lawns and woodland edges. Without a microscope you can't reliably tell them from the stinking dapperling, and amatoxins survive boiling and frying. So there's one rule: a parasol-like mushroom with a cap under 10 cm is not food.

Dapperling vs parasol: how do you tell them apart? Mainly by size and by the stem. The parasol mushroom has a cap 10–25 cm across, a stem up to 30 cm tall with a brown snakeskin pattern, and a thick double ring you can slide up and down. The shaggy parasol has a coarsely shaggy cap 5–15 cm across, a stout stem with a bulb, and flesh that turns reddish when cut. The stinking dapperling's cap is rarely bigger than a matchbox, its stem is no thicker than a pencil, and its thin ring tears rather than slides. Young parasols can be small too, but even then the stem is thick and patterned. If those features aren't there, leave it in the grass.

How does it differ from the deadly dapperlings? There are hints, but no guarantees. The deadly dapperling has pinkish-brown scales and no proper membranous ring, only a woolly zone, with dark brown scaly bands on the stem below it, and a faint fruity smell. The stinking dapperling has a white membranous ring, a smooth pale stem and a sharp rubbery smell. But its ring soon falls off and people perceive smells differently, so these features are for curiosity, not for the basket.

Where and when does it grow? Singly or in small groups on soil and leaf or needle litter: on lawns and in short grass, in shady gardens and parks, beside paths and ditches, on garden waste, along woodland edges and in broadleaf, mixed and conifer woods. It's a saprotroph with no particular tree partner. It's widespread across Europe, Britain and Ukraine included, and is often found in towns. It appears from early summer, is commonest in early and mid autumn, carries on into late autumn and occasionally turns up in a mild early winter.

What should you do if someone has eaten one? Call 112 (999 in the UK) straight away, say it may have been a dapperling, and don't wait for symptoms. After the stinking dapperling itself, nausea and vomiting can begin within half an hour to a few hours. But early vomiting doesn't mean all is well: if a deadly relative got into the dish, amatoxins show themselves 6 to 24 hours after the meal, then comes a deceptive improvement, and after two or three days the liver and kidneys are damaged. That's why doctors advise keeping such a person under hospital observation for at least a day and a half, and checking everyone who ate the dish, even if they feel fine. Keep any leftovers or photos: they help work out what it was.