Taxonomy of Toxins

Chlorophyllum rhacodes

investiganda

f. cul.

Chlorophyllum rhacodes investiganda

investiganda: Owed an investigation. The species is on the Needs Investigation table because a question stands on its published record that the Key cannot read a verdict from: a poisoning reported and no molecule found, a molecule found and no sourced route, a mark in a source list, a molecule known from this one species and not yet confirmed. The name is the stem of its recorded molecule, where the record names one and decides it, then investiganda, and nothing after it while the row is open. Where the record names no molecule the name is investiganda alone, and the gap is deliberate. The Key reads molecules: it puts a molecule in a name only when a record has placed that molecule in the mushroom. A poisoning report is not such a record; it says that harm occurred, not what caused it. The molecule may well exist, and the word states that it is to be found, not a guess at what it will be. The species is not innocuus, because innocuus means that the published record carries no link to a toxic molecule, and this species is on the table because the question of such a link is open; it would be innocuus only once the question is closed in that direction. The species leaves the table, and the word, by a ruling: its molecule registered and read, or its record found to carry no molecule after all. Latin, the gerundive of investigare: to be investigated.

On Needs Investigation, The Complete Table.

GBIF: photographs, names and where it has been found.

Sources

Li et al. 2021

19 reports of eating without harm

Li H, Tian Y, Menolli N Jr, Ye L, Karunarathna SC, Perez-Moreno J, Rahman MM, Rashid MH, Phengsintham P, Rizal L, Kasuya T, Lim YW, Dutta AK, Khalid AN, Huyen LT, Balolong MP, Baruah G, Madawala S, Thongklang N, Hyde KD, Kirk PM, Xu J, Sheng J, Boa E, Mortimer PE (2021). Reviewing the world's edible mushroom species: a new evidence-based classification system. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 20: 1982-2014. Supplementary Table S1. link

Needs Investigation. Why it is here: A record of poisonings with no molecule. The case registry of the North American Mycological Association (Beug, Shaw & Cochran 2006, McIlvainea 16(2), Table 11) records 15 adults with one gastrointestinal syndrome, onset between 0.1 and 10 hours, average 4 hours, under the older name Lepiota rachodes, which then also covered C. olivieri and C. brunneum. No molecule has been isolated. Li et al. 2021: 19 reports of eating without harm, 2 of eating with conditions, 2 calling it poisonous. (a published record). What would settle it: Which of the three species the registry cases were, and how the mushrooms were prepared; an isolated agent in C. rhacodes. The regulators require cooking (Switzerland, at least 20 minutes boiled or fried; Austria, never raw; Germany, caps only in trade), and none names a molecule.

Cite this pageRubel, William. 2026. “Chlorophyllum rhacodes.” Taxonomy of Toxins. Last modified 24 October 2026. https://taxonomyoftoxins.com/species/chlorophyllum-rhacodes/