Wild Fungi | Stinking Dapperling

Lepiota cristata, the Stinking Parasol/Dapperling, is one of several small dapperlings many of which are poisonous. A transient ring and a smell of coal gasor rubber are characteristics of this toxic toadstool of mixed woodlands and garden shrubberies. Lepiota, the genus name, comes from the Latin word lepis, meaning scale - a reference to the scaly caps of this group of agarics. The specific epithet cristata means crested. Spores are white. Until recently, dapperlings were more commonly referred to in Britain as parasols - a potential source of confusion that may have added to the incidence of poisoning.