AgaricusAugustus01

Note: These plants can be dangerous if improperly used. The author, and/or ernestartist.org assume no liability for experimentation of use.

Ernestartist.org assumes no liability for experimental use of medicinal plants, food plants or herbal remedies.

I found this beauty along the Lynn canyon trails in 2001. This particular year I am told was a bang-up and excellent mushroom season in the Pacific Northwest. I found many varieties of edible and hallucinogenic mushrooms\ rip;e and ready for the picking.

This magnificent edible definitely deserves its nickname, the prince. It grows to huge proportions, with a cap that sometimes spans over a foot across. Its size and its strong sweet almond smell are dead giveaways. It has brown spores, a speckled tan fibrillous cap, scaly stem when young, and bruises yellow when rubbed around the cap margin. It grows under Monterey pines and redwoods, among others, primarily in warm moist weather along the California coast. It often grows late in the season, after most of the other mushrooms have long since retired for the year, and sometimes even fruits in the early Summer coastal fog.

The young mushrooms are so sweet and almondy that you can use them in desserts. The older specimens take on more typical "champignon" flavors along with the almond, and may prove easier to use in normal entrées; however, these older individuals will prove most useful when dried, as they often get wormy and a bit spongy in texture.

I find that the almond-extract overtones make this a challenging but exciting mushroom to cook with, because it can dominate many dishes with an unexpected richness. Nevertheless, it has one of those unique flavors that turns people into mushroom lovers.

Píleo de 100-200 mm de diámetro, inicialmente semiredondo cuando joven, con la edad plano, escamoso, color pardo rojizo a pardo amarillento, con el centro más obscuro. Láminas libres, inicialmente rosas, en la madurez pardo sepia. Estípite grueso, bulboso, sedoso por encima del anillo, lanoso o escamoso en la parte inferior. Anillo blanco, membranoso, colgante, persistente . Olor agradable, sabor almendrado. Solitario.

Crece en bosques de pino-encino y abeto, entre los 2400 y 3200 msnm. Frecuentemente los carpóforos brotan de entre las capas gruesas de hojarasca de pino y abeto.

Se recolecta principalmente en los meses de agosto a septiembre, aunque se pueden llegar a encontrar carpóforos hasta noviembre. La recolección de esta especie se rige por la NOM-010-RECNAT-1996, que define los procedimientos, criterios y especificaciones para realizar el aprovechamiento, transporte y almacenamiento de hongos silvestres.

Este hongo es básicamente de autoconsumo, además el poco número de individuos que conforman las poblaciones de esta especie, permite que muchos hongueros no se interesen por él.