The Herbarium
Part II · Medicinal fungi
Herb. No. 175
Pioppino
Cyclocybe aegerita
Strophariaceae
The poplar mushroom of Italian kitchens — a cultivated brown-capped cluster with a stem worth eating.
Cultivated poplar mushroom. The grocery cluster is this species. Not a wild wood-rotter you cannot name.
- Parts used
- Fruiting body
- Traditional notes
- Kitchen
- Grow · USDA 6b
- Temperate block or log crop. Cool to mild fruiting. A kit or spawn. In work: Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr · May · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec
- Harvest
- Clusters while caps are still convex, before they flatten and drop heavy spore.
- Twist the bouquet.
- The stem is not a scrap.
Safety
Mushroom allergy Wild clusters on wood you cannot name
Lore
Pioppo is poplar; the mushroom followed the tree through Italian river groves. Romans already ate a poplar fungus. Modern blocks made a riverside prize a grocery cluster. The velvet on the young cap is why some labels say velvet pioppini.
The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.