Glowing Fungi or Mushrooms ?

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Guidebooks

The one I grew up with is the predecessor to North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi (Falconguide) by Orson Miller. Very technical (but not in an intrusive way), very descriptive, lots of pretty pictures
 
I'm sure you guys all know what your doing........

However, if I can throw in a tinsy word of caution for us "true" amatuer mycologists out there. AT ALL COSTS, make sure that the identification is positive before you stick it in your mouth......

Specifically, make sure it's not a Amanita phalloides (The Death Cap). I know it's not native here, and I only bring it up because we had a case of it here in Western NY within the last year. It was in someones back yard. No kidding.

The person was a long time wild shroom eater and should have known better, but he unknowingly scooped em' up, cooked and ate them. He was dead within a couples days..... Not to get all doom and gloomy on yall' :D

"I'm just saying"......

**EDIT**
Here the TEXT of my local story..... Also note, Whooops, the mushroom in question was the equally lethal Amanita bisporigera (Death Angel)
 
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A few of the Amanitas are highly edible, many are psychotrophic and will cause only stomach upset (sometimes MAJOR stomach upset), but the best thing to do is to learn the characteristics of the group as a whole and them AVOID them completely when it comes to foraging/eating.

There are more than a handful of mushrooms in the Northeast that can't be mistaken for anything else and are highly edible. Many have already been named previously --- Boletus edulis, the Blewit (Clitocybe nuda), the sulphur shelf (Laetiporous sulphureus), the honey mushroom (Armillaria mellea), and the Pear-shaped puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme) are just a few.
 
True. Only put something in your mouth if you're 100% sure what is it.

People jump out of planes only if they're 100% sure their parachute will open. Think of it the same way, with the same ramifications.

As for your trip gaiagirl, i'm sure that we all can muster up some weird ones to post and have you identify before you go to get that knowledge tip top! I'm heading to mt lowell this evening, and I'll be sure to bring a camera.
 
Those Deadly Amanitas

Poor fellow in NY. There was a mass poisoning in Poland early last century. The school cook added Amanitas to the lunch, which, as one text described it, had to be the worst school lunch in all history.

What is most awful about the toxins is they are slow acting. The first indication of your mistake is acute illness which comes several hours after the meal, when it's too late to empty your stomach. That is usually followed by a brief period of relief, followed by another couple of days before you die, while the enzymes gobble up your liver.

So yeah, the point is learn the Amanitas and the Galerina 'shrooms first. But then go eat some good ones.
 
Pamola said:
True. Only put something in your mouth if you're 100% sure what is it.
Click to expand...
not quite true, you just have to be 100% sure that either it's within a set of safe stuff, or 100% sure that it's not within a set of unsafe stuff. Don't ask me to ID most blueberry/huckleberry species, but I can recognize the group as a safe edible by some foolproof general characteristics. (at least in this part of the country) Most everything else I avoid. I tried cranberry viburnum (Viburnum trilobum) the other day & those were some nasty berries.

the nice thing about *most* non-edible plants is that the taste clues you that they're bad long before you could eat enough to be dangerous.

I won't touch wild fungi, though, & can't help you guys out with the ID, but I'm impressed...
 
arghman said:
the nice thing about *most* non-edible plants is that the taste clues you that they're bad long before you could eat enough to be dangerous.
Click to expand...

emphasis on *MOST*.

Apparently when it come to mushrooms, there is the false presumption that poisonous mushrooms "look," "taste," or "smell" undesirable. According to research I did related to that case, I recall coming across some testimony from survivors that reported the poisonous Amanita's they ate were quite tasty. :eek:
 
natreb,

#1 Again this is an old specimen without enough to go on in the pic to ID; I could guess, maybe an Agaricus, but it'd only be a guess.

#2 Are these puffballs or do they have a stalk? If they do have a stalk, is there a spongy pore surface beneath or do they have typical gills?

There is nothing like seeing the entire shroom' when it comes to IDing them.
Hey, if I win the bonus round, what do I get? :D
 
bonus #2 - I vaguely recall there were some nearby that somebody had kicked. I'm nearly sure they had short stalks and I think they had gills, but I wasn't paying attention. Edit: I now recall they had pores, not gills. Of course I've seen the Boletus photos, so my mind may be playing tricks on me. I've got a couple more photos of the tightly-clustered, near-spherical, reddish tops of these, but not of the underside.

"what do I win?"

Um, free mushrooms? How 'bout a large framed print?

Plus, of course, the chance to ID more fungi:

#3 - "maculate" - in the fork of a tree (willow?)

#4 "moths" - dead tree (fir?)

Edit: repaired links
 
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Boletus bicolor was my guess for # 2 as well, but again, just seeing one or two characteristics really doesn't lead you to a certain ID. As to #1, could be.

I will have to play more later; gotta get out there now to do a walk-through for my program in 2 weeks. Thanks everyone for helping me to brush up :) .
 
Can anyone figure these two out?

I was out foraging this evening and i grabbed what seemed to be an oyster mushroom and tossed it in my pot. Upon further inspection, it was rather different than the rest of my oysters. Here are the pics, with unknown oyster and known oyster, plus a nice orange one that i have no clue on and have no intention of eating.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/554351197MoXhwv
 
Pamola,
The orange one you have deemed inedible might be a waxy cap, possibly the scarlet, butter or orange-gill waxy cap, but color is fairly variable in them especially as they age. The gills in particular have a very waxy texture and the spore color is light. Does this seem to jibe?

The "false oyster" is trickier. I would need to know more --- where was it growing, texture of the gills and the cap, etc. Could also be in the Hygrophoraceae Family (the waxy caps) judging soley from gill attachment and overall form, but then again might be in the Tricholomatacea family along with the Oyster mushrooms and others.

There is so much variety out there that it's starting to intimidate me in regards to the Mushroom Meander I'm leading in a week and a half! Thanks for keeping me on my toes everyone :) .
 
This is a fascinating thread. On a walk in the Southern Adirondacks this past week, I came across these beauties. The first looks like delicate lace and the second specimens are covered with a glistening, sticky, clear coating. Any ideas, mycolgists?

Edelweiss
 
The first one looks like Hericium coralloides.
You can differentiate it from Hericium americanum by the shorter teeth and differentiate both of these from Hericium erinaceus (hedgehog fungus) by their branched bodies.
These classifications have changed in recent years, with names being changed like a shell game. It's slightly confusing if you have an old guide.

Good news is, all species of Hericum are edible.
 
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