‘Mushroom, Fungus, and Beech Hats: How Europe Names the Fungi’

I first noticed the phrase when looking at a pizza menu in Legoland Billund. Alongside prosciutto and mozzarella was the Danish word ‘bøgehatte’, translated straight into English as ‘beech hats’. It turns out this is the Danish name for the beech mushroom (Hypsizygus tessellatus). A reminder that what we call ‘mushroom’ in English has many names across Europe — from French ‘mousseron’ and ‘champignon’, to German ‘Pilz’, Spanish ‘seta’, Welsh ‘madarch’, and Danish ‘svamp’ or these evocative ‘beech hats’. That small menu note sent me off down the path of this word card.