Garden Fungi – Macrolepiota sp.

 
Grows in GRASS.
 
The Parasol Mushrooms (Macrolepiota sp.) are fleshy white to off-white gilled fungi. Usually the apex of the cap is a brownish coloured disc from which brownish scales spread over the cap becoming more widely dispersed as the cap grows.
 
Fruit-body: White with a darker central disc flowing into concentric scales; diameter 55 mm. Juveniles are ovoid-shaped, aging to convex then plane. White gills and flesh which appears to develop a pinkish tinge when cut or handled.
 
Stem: White with a darker pinkish lustre below the ring.
 
Spore print: Cream white.
 
Smell: None.
 
Habit: Solitary or in groups.
 
Notes: The photographed species was seen on the verge Witty Road, Moggill in April, 2009. Possibly Macrolepiota rhacodes. Macrolepiota clelandii is reported as more commonly seen in parks and gardens around the Sunshine Coast hinterland. This genus is similar to, but differentiated from, Chlorophyllum molybdites by the latter’s green spores and gills that turn a pallid green as it ages.