St George's Mushroom vs Fool's Funnel
St George's Mushroom is one of the few substantial edible mushrooms of the British spring, and it grows in exactly the sort of short grass where the muscarine-loaded Fool's Funnel also appears.
The test that decides it
Season and smell do most of the work. St George's Mushroom fruits around St George's Day in late April and smells strongly of fresh meal or wet flour. Fool's Funnel is an autumn grassland species with a faint sweetish smell and a funnel-shaped cap with strongly decurrent gills.
St George''s Mushroom
Calocybe gambosa
- Late April into June; almost unique among substantial spring mushrooms
- Very strong smell of fresh meal or damp flour
- Thick, chunky white flesh; crowded white gills
- Rings and arcs in short grass, churchyards, hedge banks
Full species guide →
Fool''s Funnel
Clitocybe rivulosa
- Autumn species of lawns and short grass, often in rings
- Cap flattens then funnels, often with concentric watery banding
- Gills run noticeably down the stem
- Contains muscarine: sweating, salivation, blurred vision, slow heart
Full species guide →
Feature by feature
| Feature | St George''s Mushroom | Fool''s Funnel |
|---|---|---|
| Season | Late April to June | Late summer to late autumn |
| Smell | Powerfully mealy, like fresh flour or cucumber skins | Faint, slightly sweet |
| Cap shape | Domed then flat, thick and fleshy, often irregular | Flat then funnelled, thin-fleshed, often banded |
| Gills | Crowded, white, notched at the stem | Crowded, whitish, running down the stem |
| Spore print | White | White |
| Size | Cap 5 to 15 cm, chunky | Cap 2 to 5 cm, slight |
Never eat a wild mushroom on the strength of a website alone. Some deadly species look very like good edibles. Check every feature, and get an expert opinion if there is any doubt at all.
Read the full foraging safety guidance.
Common questions
- Are the two ever out at the same time?
- Rarely, but a warm autumn can produce a late flush of St George''s-like Calocybe and mild springs can produce early Clitocybe. Never rely on season alone - the mealy smell is the check that matters.
- What does muscarine poisoning feel like?
- Within fifteen minutes to two hours: heavy sweating, streaming eyes and mouth, blurred vision, stomach cramps and a slowed heartbeat. It is treatable in hospital with atropine, so seek help immediately and take a specimen with you.
- What else grows in grass rings?
- Fairy Ring Champignon (Marasmius oreades), which is edible, shares the ring habit and the pale colour. It has widely spaced gills, a tough wiry stem that will not snap, and it revives after drying. Fool''s Funnel gills are crowded and its stem snaps.
Checked against
- Index Fungorum / Species Fungorum current names
- Original field notes, wildmushroomsonline.co.uk archive 2013