Tawny funnelParalepista flaccida

The tawny funnel (Paralepista flaccida), also called the tawny funnel cap and still listed in many guides as Lepista flaccida or Lepista inversa, is edible but poor, and we don't recommend picking it. It isn't poisonous itself. The risk lies in look-alike funnels: the white funnels of lawns and meadows contain muscarine, and in Western Europe a toxic relative that can cause weeks of burning pain in the feet passes for it.

Only several features together identify it. The cap is tawny, orange-brown or brick-coloured, 4–10 cm across, and becomes a funnel with age. The gills are very crowded, cream, run far down the stem and are always paler than the cap. The spore print is whitish to cream. At the base of the stem a woolly white mycelium binds the needles together. There is no ring and no milk.

It grows in troops, rows and fairy rings in conifer needle litter, less often among fallen leaves, in mixed woodland under pine and oak, and on humus-rich soil and woodchip mulch. It is common across Europe, Ukraine included. It's one of the last common gilled mushrooms of the year: it fruits from late summer into early winter, most abundantly in mid and late autumn, and in mild weather it carries on into winter thaws.

Is it edible? Most European field guides call it edible, but the taste is unremarkable and sometimes bitter, and large helpings can be hard to digest. North American guides advise against it, and Switzerland removed it from its list of edible species because of the toxic look-alike described below. Cooking makes no difference if the mushroom you've picked is actually that look-alike.

The most dangerous look-alike, Paralepistopsis amoenolens (formerly Clitocybe amoenolens), causes erythromelalgia: a day to a week after the meal, burning pain, redness and swelling start in the feet and hands, and can last for weeks. There is often no vomiting, so the poisoning isn't linked to mushrooms. Cases have been described in France and Italy, and the species also grows in Spain and Switzerland, under conifers on chalky soil. Its cap is pale beige, orange only in the centre, and it has a strong sweet smell of jasmine or orange blossom. If your feet or hands start burning after a mushroom meal, call 112 (999 in the UK) and say you ate wild mushrooms.

Other look-alikes. The fool's funnel and other white funnels grow in grass, are white to frosted grey with no tawny colour, and are poisonous because of muscarine. The false chanterelle is bright orange and its gills fork repeatedly. The brown rollrim's gills bruise brown when touched and its spore print is brown. The common funnel is pale buff with no orange tone. The fenugreek milk cap oozes watery milk from broken gills and smells of lovage.