Stropharia sky blue (Stropharia caerulea)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Strophariaceae (Strophariaceae)
- Genus: Stropharia (Stropharia)
- Species: Stropharia caerulea (Stropharia sky blue)
An interesting mushroom from the Stropharia family with a beautiful greenish-blue cap.
Distributed in our country, found in North America, Kazakhstan, European countries. Stropharia of this type grows either singly or in small groups. Likes to grow in parks, along roads, in pastures, preferring rotting grass litters, moist soils rich in humus.
In the sky-blue stropharia, the cap has a conical shape (in young mushrooms), becoming curved with age. The surface is dense, not translucent.
Color - matte blue, with ocher spots, there may also be greenish tints (especially at the edges).
Volvo is either absent, or presented in the form of scales, flakes.
The mushroom is lamellar, while the plates are even, located by teeth. They have a pronounced segmentation. In young specimens of Stropharia caerulea, the plates are usually gray-brown in color, at a later age they are purple.
The pulp has a soft structure, a white-dirty color, a greenish or blue tint may be present.
The leg is in the form of a regular cylinder, up to about 10 cm long. There is a ring, but only in young mushrooms, in old ones it is completely absent.
Stropharia sky blue can be seen from June to early November (depending on the weather).
It belongs to the category of edible mushrooms, but is not appreciated by experts, it is not eaten.