Sooty head (grey knight)
Tricholoma portentosum
mushroom
⚠️ Toxic look-alike
Never eat this mushroom unless you are certain it is not its toxic look-alike.
Several gray tricholomas look like it, including the tiger tricholoma, which within one to three hours causes vomiting and diarrhea so violent they often lead to hospital; the livid pinkgill, gray too, does the same. This tricholoma has a gray cap with radiating black fibers, a yellow tinge on the gills and stem, and a smell of flour. The tiger tricholoma has a cap covered in small gray scales arranged in circles, like a tiger's skin, and gills with no yellow; the livid pinkgill has gills that turn pink with age. And the yellow knight, long eaten, has caused deaths by destroying the muscles. Have every harvest checked by a pharmacist or a mycological society.
If in the slightest doubt, leave it. If you feel unwell after eating it, even several hours later, call Poison Control (1-800-222-1222) or 911.
A gray cap streaked with black fibers, white gills tinged with yellow, firm flesh tasting of flour, pan-fried with garlic or in an omelet.
- Origin
- Pine groves and forests of Europe
- Where to find it
- In the pine forests of Sologne, the Vosges and the Massif Central; foragers call it “charbonnier” and look for it under the needles, at the foot of the pines.
- Season (United States)
- October to December
- Preparation
- It is cleaned with a damp cloth, without soaking, the earthy stem base cut off, then pan-fried for about ten minutes; like all wild mushrooms, it is eaten cooked, never raw. If you pick it yourself, have the mushroom checked by a pharmacist or a mycological society before eating it.
- Molecules
- Mushroom beta-glucansIn small amounts, not counted Ergothioneine
- Did you know?
- It grows late, until the first frosts: it is one of the last mushrooms of the year.