The flowerpot parasol is the bright lemon-yellow mushroom that pops up in houseplant pots. It's harmless to your plants, but it's considered poisonous to people and pets. It's also called the yellow houseplant mushroom.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Caps are 1–2.5 in (2.5–6 cm) across, egg- or bell-shaped at first and flattening with age, with grooved edges. Cap, gills, and stem are all lemon to sulfur yellow, and the cap is covered in soft, fluffy scales that rub off easily.
- Growth form
- The slender stem is 1–4 in (3–10 cm) tall with a swollen, club-shaped base and a thin ring that may fall away.
Look-alikes
Fragile dapperlingLeucocoprinus fragilissimus
The fragile dapperling has a pale greenish-yellow cap that fades almost to white and an extremely thin (1–2 mm), fragile stem. The flowerpot parasol is a deeper lemon yellow with a swollen stem base.
Why they get mixed upBoth are small, delicate, yellowish parasol mushrooms.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Houseplant pots
- Greenhouses
- Compost piles
- Range
- Common across the tropics and subtropics worldwide. In cooler parts of the United States it shows up mostly indoors—in pots, greenhouses, and terrariums.
- Preferred conditions
- Thrives in warm, moist conditions, breaking down dead plant matter in potting soil, humus, or compost.
Life cycle
- Reproduction
- Besides spores, it can form tiny, hard grains () on the soil surface—unusual for a gilled mushroom.
Growing it
- Care
- It doesn't hurt living plants. Pulling the mushrooms won't get rid of the fungus in the soil, and fungicides usually don't help.
- Toxicity
- Considered poisonous; eating it can cause stomach upset. If children or pets share the home, remove mushrooms as they appear.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Older North American books often call it Lepiota lutea; the current name, Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, has been used since 1962.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- The species name honors Birnbaum, a garden inspector who found it in 1839 among pineapple plants in a greenhouse in Prague.
More species to explore
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