Agaricus crocopeplus

What the species is

Agaricus crocopeplus is a wild gilled mushroom of the genus Agaricus. The name was published by Berkeley and Broome, and the supplied catalogue records it as a research name, not a checked current name. The supplied record gives no common name, and no alias was recorded in the catalogue.

Agaricus is a large genus of mushrooms with many cultivated and wild members. Its species are not all edible, and some are poisonous, so a food record for one species does not establish the edibility of any other. The record for this species is therefore specific to the specimens and the communities named in the survey.

Ecology and habitat

The catalogue describes the species as a forest saprotroph, a fungus that lives on dead organic matter rather than in partnership with tree roots, and it is recorded as a wild mushroom. The survey region is the rainforest of the Tshopo province, around Yangambi and Yoko in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The sources read for this entry do not describe the fruiting body in detail, and they do not record a seasonal pattern or a microhabitat for the species.

Food use recorded in Tshopo

The species appears in a survey of wild mushroom use among six ethnic communities near Yangambi and Yoko, which recorded 160 informants. The survey lists Agaricus crocopeplus under food use, with voucher specimens deposited for the record. Its cultural-significance score in that study is low, and the same survey shows that the Tshopo communities used a wider set of wild mushrooms, mostly for food.

A companion study of edible ectomycorrhizal fungi in the same province reports the species as eaten by several of the groups it surveyed. The table in that study is hard to read with certainty, so the list of groups is not recorded here. Both studies note that the local people mainly use saprotrophic species such as this one, although the forests also hold many edible ectomycorrhizal fungi.

Preparation and use

The catalogue states that the species-specific preparation was not established. The survey records use as food, but the sources read for this entry do not describe how the mushroom is cooked, dried or combined with other foods, and they give no quantity or yield.

The entry therefore records only that the mushroom is eaten in the named communities. A method for preparing it cannot be taken from the species name, from the genus, or from the food practices of other Agaricus species.

Safety and identification

The source that records food use is an ethnomycological survey. It is not an independent toxicological assessment, and the catalogue states that it does not establish the safety of the species. The sources read for this entry give no toxicity data, no chemical composition and no statement about the edibility of the species outside the named survey.

This page is not an identification guide and gives no verdict on whether the species can be eaten. Agaricus contains look-alike species that are dangerous, and any wild specimen needs a qualified identification before anyone eats it.

Open questions

Three points remain open. The taxonomic status of the name needs checking against current authorities. The preparations used by the Tshopo communities need to be recorded in detail. The safety of the species has not been assessed by a toxicological study.