Also known as trooping funnel, this mushroom is found during the fall in Europe and North America growing in fairy rings or troops in mixed woodlands including forest clearings and pastures. The mushroom is 2.4 to 6 inches tall and has a cap 3 ¼ to to 10 inches across. The waxy, pale leather brown cap becomes funnel-shaped with age but always maintains a central umbo which gives it the look of a monk’s tonsure. The margin is inrolled when young before turning upward and becoming undulating. The pale buff gills are crowded, uneven, and run down the stem. The pale brown cylindrical stem is relative long in comparison to the diameter of the cap and has a white felty covering on its base. The spores are white.
Due to its pleasant, complex odor and large size, the mushroom is of culinary interest although not considered choice. The fibrous stem should be discarded and the cap used when young before the flesh becomes spongy then leathery with age. Young flesh can be fried or roasted as well as used in stews, soups, sauces, risotto, and other mushroom dishes. It can be preserved in olive oil.
When collecting mushrooms in the wild expert advice should be sought on identification before eating them.
Photo Credit: By Charles Sommer – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8469830
Karen Meyers