Charbonnier

Identity and names

Charbonnier is the common name used for Tricholoma portentosum, a mushroom of the genus Tricholoma. The supplied catalogue also gives the English name sooty head and records the species as a grey-capped member of a genus that contains several species with very different safety records.

The species grows on the ground in association with trees, as a mycorrhizal partner of its host trees. The catalogue gives the ecology as tree-associated and the supply as wild.

Market use in Europe

The supplied catalogue records charbonnier as a cooked seasonal mushroom sold in European markets. The catalogue gives no preparation, recipe or method for it, and it does not describe the regional names or the seasons in which it is sold.

Spain's 2009 decree on the sanitary conditions for marketing mushrooms lists Tricholoma portentosum among wild species that may be sold fresh. The decree requires wild fresh mushrooms to be sold whole, unwashed and not mixed for the consumer, so the legal sale of the species is governed by those conditions.

Safety within the genus

The same Spanish decree bans several other Tricholoma species in any form, including T. equestre, so the genus cannot be treated as uniformly safe. The catalogue states that its edibility conclusion does not extend to other grey Tricholoma species.

Tricholoma equestre has been linked with rhabdomyolysis in a 2001 case series, and the scientific sources disagree about its safety. That finding concerns a different species, and the sources read here give no toxicity profile or poisoning record for T. portentosum. Identification to species should be confirmed by a regional expert before any wild Tricholoma is eaten.

Open questions

The sources read here do not give the traditional names of the species beyond charbonnier and sooty head, the season of collection or any preparation. Those are the next items to confirm from a European food source.