White mushrooms

Usually the white form of the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus). In the wild, field mushroom, lion's mane and oyster mushroom are also white, and so are deadly species such as the destroying angel.

Shop-bought button mushrooms are. Wild white mushrooms must not be eaten without expert identification, because the deadly destroying angel is pure white too.

The destroying angel keeps white gills and has a ring on the stem and a sac at the base. Button mushroom gills darken with age. These are clues; a firm identification needs an expert.

A capless, irregular round white mass may be lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus). Other species can look similar, so a firm identification is needed.

No. They are different species in the same genus (Agaricus). The field mushroom grows wild in meadows; the button mushroom is mostly cultivated.

If poisoning is suspected in Türkiye, call 112 or the National Poison Information Centre (114) straight away, and keep a piece of the mushroom if you can. With deadly species, symptoms can start hours later; do not wait.

The white mushroom in shops is the cultivated button mushroom; pale oyster mushrooms and enoki also look white. White wild species include the edible field mushroom and young puffballs, while the pure white destroying angel is deadly. The list on this page gives each species' features.

Large white mushrooms in the wild include the horse mushroom, the field mushroom, the giant puffball and the parasol mushroom, but also the deadly destroying angel. We check gill colour, ring and the base of the stem before eating any white mushroom.

Brown spots on shop button mushrooms are usually bruises or signs of age. In the wild, white mushrooms with brown scales include the shaggy ink cap and the parasol; spots alone do not tell us whether a mushroom is edible.

A large, round white mushroom without a stem in grass or woodland edges is often a giant puffball (Calvatia gigantea), which can reach the size of a football. We cut it in half: an edible puffball is pure white and even inside, without any outline of a cap or gills, which would point to a deadly Amanita egg.

Long, thin white mushrooms in shops are usually enoki, grown in the dark. In the wild, a tall white mushroom with a shaggy cap is the shaggy ink cap. We always check the base of any tall white wild mushroom for a sac, the mark of deadly Amanitas.