The return of the saint

The spring arrival of the St George’s mushroom coincides with the annual celebration of England’s patron saint, explains John Wright

- John Wright

Most edible mushrooms, indeed most larger fungi, appear during the late summer and throughout autumn. But a handful encourage our hopes by growing in spring: the morel, the black morel and the St George’s mushroom. None are particularly common, though the black morel has become considerably more so since the late 1980s, when it found a new and agreeable home in the wood chips used to mulch shrubberies.

The St George’s mushroom is a species of permanent grassland, so old pasture, wood and grassy path edges, roadsides, parks and domestic lawns are the places to look. Not that actively looking helps much. Like most fungi, you simply come across them. Unfortunately, this mushroom is much rarer than it once was as permanent pasture loss has been regrettably rapid and extensive over the past few decades.

Everyone who wishes to collect wild mushrooms for the table worries — indeed, should worry — about poisoning themselves. As one 19th century writer said: “A promiscuous consignment of various descriptions of fungi to the cook cannot be too strongly deprecated.”

St George’s mushroom, from William Hamilton Gibson’s Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms

But there is little risk with St George’s mushrooms as it is the only large grassland species you are likely to encounter in spring.

If that is not enough, it is easily identified from physical characteristics. The entire fungus is a progressively grubby white/cream. It can grow to 12cm or more in diameter and is generally the shape of the cultivated mushroom, but with a thicker stem. It is robust and firm of flesh. The smell it produces is very strong: farinaceous, referring to the smell of flour or meal, from the Latin farina. Raw pastry may be a better allusion. It almost invariably grows in fairy rings. In short, St George’s mushroom is one of the easiest of all the fungi to identify.