Fungi identification

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 02:37 AM

I went on a fungus hunt with a friend once. I thought I knew a lot of fungi, but the variation in size, colour and texture was incredible - I particularly liked the little bright yellow one that looked exactly like a sweetcorn niblet on a white stalk... cute.

I only hunt with a camera, having had my share of 'bush tucker' and 'food for free' experiences way back in my late teens. One day I'll get round to buying an identifier book.

LTS

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: open mike
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 02:29 AM

do be careful that th eobok you use is local to your area.
i have heard of asian immigrants who found 'shrooms that
looked just like the ones they had in their home country,
and a whole family died. sad.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: stallion
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 04:58 AM

I have several books, basket, knife, gloves no memory for names! But, I do know that of all the "maybe edible" fungi I manage to find I only identify about 30% positively. My family let me eat them and if I am not ill and still alive the next day they tuck in. In France you take your haul to the chemist and they ID them for you. The two main books I use are "Mushrooms and other fungi of Great Britain & Europe", Roger Phillips, Pan Books,ISBN 0 330 26441 9, which has lots of illustrations and "The Mushroom identifier", David Peglar & Brian Spooner, Apple Press, ISBN 1 85076 361 5, that has an edibility guide, ie some are not poisonous but taste naff or are to tough to eat. Can't help with US fungi though! Also I don't pick anything unless I am sure which some times means lying down to look under the fungi! I once sniffed a Fungi which I am sure resulted in an infection that lead to pneumonia!

Enjoy you bush tucker
Peter

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: MBSLynne
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 04:01 AM

Yuk!

I think one of the fascinations of fungi is just how sinister some of them are. Even the fact that the pretty, possibly edible ones MIGHT actually be poisonous ones in disguise makes it all the more fascinating

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 08:16 PM

Arrrggghhh! The Creepy Caterpiller Killer! Attack of the living dead!

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: terrier
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 06:42 PM

This one is really creepy Scarlet Caterpiller Fungus

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: terrier
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 03:01 PM

In that case Ebbie, I'm sure it's a type of club fungus, but not one I've met before. If you find out what it is,let me know so I can add it to my virtual collection.(I thought the stinkhorn was a bit of a long shot, oh well)out of ideas!

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 01:18 PM

Nope, Terrier. My fungus looks nothing like that. Mine are straight up, with little variation in width from top to bottom, and side by side in a cluster.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: MBSLynne
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 10:02 AM

Ah, but Dave, you can't get tawny grisettes, parasol mushrooms, blewitts, lawyer's wigs, shaggy inkcaps etc in a greengrocer's! And even ordinary horse or field mushrooms are a different variety from the cultivated mushrooms you buy. I haven't eaten wild mushrooms since I was a kid but they are so far superior to bought mushrooms as to make it almost worth the risk!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 09:54 AM

There is a sure fire way of telling - If you pick them in a reputable greengrocers they are safe. If you pick them from a field they are not.

See - Easy.

:D

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 08:47 AM

The local expert will be able to tell you best. Horse mushrooms where I grew up were the big flat mushrooms that grow biggest and best in a field inhabited (or at least fertilised) by a horse. Ordinary big white edible mushrooms with pinkish brown to black gills, a white frill around the stem and a meaty texture when fried in butter with garlic and cream.

LTS

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: MBSLynne
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 07:41 AM

I get the impression from my reading that one of the problems with fungi identification is that, like some butterflies and moths, there can be wide variations in one species in different areas. So really, I guess you need a LOCAL fungi expert to be any good.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 05:54 AM

Like you, Lynne, I'm quite good at identifying plants but I find fungi baffling.

The other day I found a very distinctive mushroom on some sand dunes in Cumbria. It had the normal 'toadstool' top and a very distinctive long, banded stalk (I think that 'stipe' is the technical term). There was an illustration of something similar in one of my books - but when I looked up the same species in another book the illustration looked nothing like it. Very puzzling! Needless to say I won't be eating anything ...

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: MBSLynne
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 03:32 AM

I find them fascinating too and have intended to learn more about them for a long time, but have never had the time so far....it's like grasses. I'd love to know all the different types of grass but as someone said to me recently "I've always said I'll learn grasses when I retire".

When I read through the introduction to one of the fungi books I have, it also says you should find someone who knows to point out the edible and poisonous and their characteristics.

Oh well...I can't eat my tawny grisettes but they look so pretty growing in the shadow in our mini-wood that I don't really mind.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: terrier
Date: 19 Aug 07 - 07:06 PM

There are quite a few variations of deadly fungi in the UK. The most deadly, I believe, is a close relative of Amanita phalloides (Death Cap), known as the Destroying Angel( Amanita virosa). The Amanita muscaria that Richard refers to is the Fly agaric (rheindeer eat them then the Laplanders drink the rheindeer urin and thats how you get flying rheindeer)or so I'm told.

Ebbie, if your fungus is not either of those I suggested, I think maybe it's not a Clavarias (club fungus) but a type of Stinkhorn (related to clavarius I think). Try this link Phallus rubicundus

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Bee
Date: 19 Aug 07 - 06:24 PM

Only two? Roger's Mushrooms deadly poison page brings up 19.

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/ChooserResult.asp

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 Aug 07 - 05:34 PM

There are only two really dangerous funghi in the UK - the Panther Cap (Amanita Pantheris)and the Death Cap (Amanita Muscaria).

The worst anything else will do to you is give you the worst upset stomach (at both ends) that you have ever had in your life.

The so-called "Horse Mushroom" or "Yellow Stainer" will upset a lot of people and it looks very like the classic edible mushroom (but different stem ring and different gill colour, and of course the Yellow Stainer stains yellow when cut). Fortunately I seem to be among those to whom both are harmless.   

All out of books (except for the fact that I am still here).

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 19 Aug 07 - 05:08 PM

Hi Lynne
Have you thought of joining the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)?
The cost is £44 for the year and gives free entry to many gardens and events such as Chelsea Flower Show. They offer a Plantfinder service which could be helpful to you with selling your herbs and incredible amounts of advice on the identification and culture of planats.
They could probably put you in touch with an expert in your area.

Colyn (whose parents were florists and whose grandfather is perpetuated in the RHS archives due to his production of show auriculas).

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Ebbie
Date: 19 Aug 07 - 01:09 AM

When I came to Alaska 19 years ago I spent my first summer working at a wilderness camp that provided grilled wild salmon dinners for tourists.

I roamed widely in the forest and as fall progressed I found an astonishing number of varieties of mushrooms. I gathered them, not for eating (in fact I made sure I washed my hands thoroughly after handling them, because I had little clue of what was good and what was not) but for display. Each day I filled a large basket with fresh moss and 'plugged in' the mushrooms then put the basket on a central table. It was a popular display.

Some were large - the boletas, especially so - and some were the tiniest things. They ranged in colors from ivory to brown to violet to red orange - the toxic amanitas were luridly so - some were jellied on top and some were concave. I read that southeast Alaska sports a great number of varieties.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Janie
Date: 19 Aug 07 - 12:30 AM

Hi Lynne,

I found the British Mycological Society and see they do forays a few times a year. If you can't attend one of them, perhaps they could put you in touch with a member in your area who might be a good resource. I don'thtink there is any good substitute for a knowledgable human guide.

Janie

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Ebbie
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 11:41 PM

Man. I was hoping that 'my' fungus was the Clavulina amethystine you mentioned. It sounded right, color, habitat and all.

But I found a photo of the Clavulina amethystine and it is nothing like. These 'fingers' I spoke of are discrete; each finger comes out of the ground separately, while the Clavulina amethystine looks like coral.

More suggestions, please!

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Slag
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 10:38 PM

There are books which give the descriptions of the spores. Invest in a microscope. This is the only way to really be sure. This was my son's hobby from about age 13 and on. Most of the edible ones have a poisonous counterpart. Some of the poisons may just make you sick to your stomach like the Jack-O-Lantern. Collect with someone who is experienced. When in doubt, DON'T! If you don't know an experienced collector or can't swing a microscope, stick with Chanterelles, Morels, Puff Balls or the Coxcombs (the fins growing out of tree stumps). These have no poisonous counterparts in North America. I don't no about Europe or elsewhere.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: gnu
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 10:25 PM

All I ever did for harvesting wild shrooms was watch what the deer eat. Ah, I'll stop there. I like fried shrooms and pancakes.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Rowan
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 10:00 PM

A phrase I picked up from Jim Willis, the botanist who wrote the (now out of print and probably out of date) book on fungal taxonomy in Victoria (Oz). When describing the differences between "edible and palatable", "edible but unpalatable", "inedible" and "poisonous" he mentioned those who gathered and ate fungi in the following terms;

"There are old and there are bold eaters of fungi, but very few of the old are bold and very few of the bold grow old."

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Bee
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 06:32 PM

No, terrier, please 'erudate'! I enjoy learning new nature bits. At this time of year I'm more interested in fungi because there's lots of 'em around. I had a huge fairy ring of clumps of burnt orange frilly looking, almost stemless mushrooms growing in a woodchip pile in my woods last week, there are boletes of some kind springing up, and a little red capped thing along the drive, plus, although they aren't precisely fungi, I've huge clumps of white and pink      Indian Pipe growing all over - it's a big year for them.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 05:15 PM

They are fascinating. Hardly any here, too dry. We do get the 'toadstools' in the lawn....and they don't even LOOK appealing. Spindly stalks, kinda brownish all over, pointy caps and black gills. Icky looking.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: terrier
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 05:07 PM

Bee, I thought you were referring to Moor Club fungus which is Clavaria argillacea.You could be correct in that some people may refer to all variations of Clavaria as Club Fungus.The nearest match I can find to Ebbie's description is Clavulina amethystine. This grows to about 4 inches high and can be seen late summer to autumn in damp, shady conditions. Classed as rare.
The Giant Club fungi is the one I think of, about 6 inches high and shaped like a club. Sorry to go on but I find mushies fascinating.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Bee
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 03:06 PM

Terrier, I thought many of the finger-like fungi were called club fungi.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: terrier
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 02:45 PM

Bee posted
<< Ebbie, I'm guessing a club fungus, maybe. >>

Possibly, but isn't that yellow? (Clavaria argillacea)
Try Clavaria rosea, thats a much darker pink colour. Autumn fruiting on grass meadowland.

BTW,Rapaire, Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus)is edible when in it's 'egg' stage, also reputed to be an aphrodisiac. OK, who wants to be first to try it, form an orderly queue please ;)

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Bee
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 02:27 PM

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/

Pretty good Europe and North America online guide.

Ebbie, I'm guessing a club fungus, maybe.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: pdq
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 01:27 PM

Here's

             a little more
         
                                    about
               
                                                spore prints

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 01:08 PM

The only variety I'll pick with absolute confidence is oyster fungus. Others just aren't worth the risk. Too many poisonous look-alikes.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Rog Peek
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 12:58 PM

Lonnie: I say, I say, I say!
Les: Not you again!
Lonnie: My dustbin's absolutely full with toadstools.
Les: How do you know it's full?
Lonnie: 'Cos there's not mushroom inside.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: pdq
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 12:41 PM

Eating a single mushroom of the wrong species can cause liver failure.

A liver transplant is not fun. Ask David Crosby.

The (ratio of)   risk : reward   in eating wild mushrooms is just too high.

If hunting wild mushrooms is fun to you, try making spore prints. Some spores
    are dark in color and some are very light. Get both white paper and dark and
    see which makes the better print for that species. Good looking prints can be
    saved as wall art by spraying them with a sealer such as the one used for
    fixing dry-transfer letters. Hair spray probably will work in a pinch.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: gnu
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 12:27 PM

Hansel and Gretel saw the gingerbread house about a half hour after they ate the mushrooms... yeah, I see it too.

hehehehe.... George Carlin

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Ebbie
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 12:26 PM

Not edible I should think but I'm curious about something that appears to be in the fungus family.

It grows in clusters of 8 or so 'fingers', standing upright in dampish ground. A dusty purple violet in color, these fingers are about the thickness of one's little finger but about half again as tall. They look membraneous, as though they would 'weep' if held in the hand.

Does anyone have an idea of what they might be?

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: MBSLynne
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 12:14 PM

Nor can you mistake giant puffballs. That's the one fungi I do pick and eat. And very nice it is too

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 11:39 AM

I saw a puffball (lycopodium) up in Canada about a week ago.... Also some plain ol' white mushrooms.

Didn't pick 'em.

I'm only completely sure of morels and stinkhorn. You really can't mistake stinkhorn.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 11:29 AM

My sister went out with a mushroom...he wasn't much to look at but she said he was a fungi to be with

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: MBSLynne
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 09:58 AM

Lol Valmai!

The trouble with finding someone who gathers them locally, is that there are very few people these days who do. For instance, I am the person people come to to find out about the plants so where do I go if I don't know something?

Good thought about the places to take them though. I think the place around here might be the most local Wildlife trust branch. I'll give it a go.

The books I have don't just rely on illustration for identification, they go into all the things like the way the gills are attached, the colour and layout of a spore print, the time and place they may be found growing and often, what they might be confused with. Having said that, you are right...the best way is to be shown by someone who knows. It was passed down from one generation to the next once but it's mostly been lost in the last couple of generations.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: terrier
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 09:55 AM

I enjoy finding mushrooms and trying to identify them. I use several good books on Mycology. The description in the book, apart from good photographs of the fruiting body, should give you a thorough description, pointers on where you are likely to find it and fruiting times (time of year). Fungi are usualy described as edible, non edible, poisonous or deadly.The non edible and deadly varieties are self explicit, they'll either kill you or taste so bad that you won't want to eat them. On the other hand, MBSL, you mention Parasol mushrooms (Lepiota), although normaly classed as edible, they can cause digestive disorders in some people, so in some books they are classed as mildly poisonous.Lepiota Procera should be safe to eat, but are you sure it's not one of it's close relatives. Also some fungi react unfavourably with alchohol and other common drugs.There are very few 'deadly' fungi, most inedible ones will either just taste awful or make you sick.
Tawney Grisette should be OK for most people to eat but looks very like Amanita inaurata, both are very common and both Autumn fruiting, the difference being that the latter will probably make you ill.
The rule is unless you're 110% sure, don't eat it. Even the experts sometimes get it wrong!

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Alice
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 09:34 AM

We have county office in the states called Extension Services which are agricultural help services that include entymologists, horticulturists... they identify things people bring into the office.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Bee
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 09:12 AM

Yes, definitely find someone who knows from experience. Here there are sometimes tours or walks guided by a mycologist, but someone who's collected for years is your best source of information. I can confidently identify chanterelles and meadow mushrooms, and I know there are other edibles around, but I don't take chances.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: mack/misophist
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 08:53 AM

Find out if your county/shire agricultural office has an identification service. I'm told that in central and east Europe it's quite common. Never hurts to ask.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 07:51 AM

If you eat them and then you die, they were poisonous.

DC

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 07:24 AM

I can't really offer much help except to note that every good book on mushroom identification that I've seen includes the caution that you should NOT attempt to eat any of them based only on identification from the book, without consulting someone with actual experience in gathering and eating, who can show you which safe ones are found in your area.

People do ignore this warning, and some survive. I haven't been in areas where anything but common (toxic) toadies grow, so haven't had the inclination to do more than a bit of fairly casual reading 'bout the little things. Friends in other parts of the country - and even some in other parts of the state, do occasionally do some gathering, and there are a couple that I'm pretty confident I could identify reliably, but the majority of them all look just like a wholesome good safe one but also look just like the deadly one(s) that are too similar for me to tell them apart.

If a particular kind is common enough to be worth gathering in your area, it's almost certain that some of your friends/neighbors do gather them; and help with identification should be fairly easy to find by bringing the subject up with some of them(?).

John

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 07:23 AM

There is nothing like having things pointed out to you first hand...as a child, my Grandfather took me out many times to study the countryside and pointed out what could or could not be eaten and it amazes me that there is so much that we actually can eat....however......illustrations in books can be deceptive and should not be used as definitive proof that something is what it purports to be...after all..if they are wrong and you are paralyzed or worse...who takes the rap?
Suggest that when you have things growing...take them to people who have been country dwellers all their lives...some may know, some may not..but always play safe.
Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 06:48 AM

This isn't much help, but I once saw a little drawing on the wall of Glynde railway station in Sussex of a spotty toadstool with FLY AGARIC AIRLINES written under it.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Fungi identification
From: MBSLynne
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 05:30 AM

Ooops! Sorry, this should be BS. Could someone move it please?

Love Lynne

Subject: Fungi identification
From: MBSLynne
Date: 18 Aug 07 - 05:29 AM

Although I am a country person and I know not only the names but usually the many uses of all the local wild plants, I've never had the confidence to extend into fungi. I have several books on the subject and when I find mushrooms or toadstools or whatever growing in our garden or mini-wood I look them up. This morning I found a group of what I THINK are tawny grisette mushrooms, which are edible. I'd love to try them but don't quite dare in case I'm wrong and they are actually poisonous. Last year it was the same with what I think were parasol mushrooms.

Anyone got any comments, knowledge, experiences?

Love Lynne