How to Grow and Care for Agaricus

The yellow stainer grows across North America and Europe and has been imported to Australia. It can be distinguished from other common white mushrooms by the bright chrome yellow color it turns when bruised. It is known to be poisonous, causing cramps, nausea, and purging. Unfortunately, it often gets accidentally eaten as it looks similar to several edible white mushrooms.

Most of the mushrooms sold in supermarkets in the US are cultivated forms of the button mushroom. The white variants are sold as "button mushrooms", the brown as "cremini" or "baby bellas", and full-grown caps as "portobellas." They occur quite infrequently in the wild, in grassy fields around the Northern Hemisphere.