The penny bun has the near singular quality among fungi of both being edible and looking edible. The English name nicely reflects its appeal — the top of a soft bread roll, complete with dimples.

It is the blessed cèpe of the French, the porcino of the Italians and the steinpilz of the Germans. The French and Italian terms are routinely borrowed in English-speaking countries, a clear indication that Britons learned of this treasure relatively recently, as is the late coinage of the English common name in about 1900.

Before that, if we bothered to call it anything, it was the scientific Boletus edulis , or just ‘boletus’. A proselytising writer in the late 19th century bemoaned ‘… the sweet, nutty Boletus , in vain calling himself edulis where there are none to believe him’. Alt

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