edible and poisonous fungi

 

A mushroom is the fruit of a fungus. Its purpose is to disperse spores, microscopic single cells that can grow into new fungi. The fungus looks like a series of branching threads infiltrating the soil or in the wood of living or dead trees. (These higher fungi, which produce mushrooms, consist of many cells. Single-cell lower fungi, which don't produce mushrooms, aren't covered here.)
Mushrooms in different groups take different forms because they have diverse strategies for disseminating spores.

Ecology
There are many lingering superstitions and prejudices, people overlook mushrooms' essential roles in our environment. Some fungi interconnect to a tree's microscopic root hairs, taking glucose (simple sugar) in exchange for the minerals and water the fungus obtains from the soil, a symbiotic (living together) relationship called commensualism. The fungus may also create plant hormones that stimulate the tree to grow. About 80% of trees depend on these overlooked fungi, which scientists call mycorrhizal.
Saprophytic fungi grow in dead wood or dead organic material, break it down, and return nutrients to the soil so new life can flourish, an essential function for our ecosystems.
Other fungi are parasitic, attacking living trees and sometimes killing them, paving the way for the saprophytic species and renewal (some parasitic fungi also become saprophytic after they kill the tree).

How to Identify a Mushroom?
Some mushroom species are very easy to identify (the chicken mushroom or sulfur shelf, the giant puffball, morels, and the chanterelle are considered so obvious that people call them the foolproof four). Others are quite difficult. Some species have poisonous look-alikes, others are quite distinct and have no poisonous relatives. Learn a small number of the most unmistakable species at first, and check with an expert before you eat any wild mushrooms.

A good starting point trying to learn about wild edible mushrooms is getting mushroom books specific to the area you are foraging. Using a guidebook that focuses on another region you might spend a lot of time matching your find to a mushroom that does not grow in your area. In the Pacific Northwest, my favorite starter book is the “The New Savory Wild Mushroom”; also locally of relevance are David Arora's books and some others (for complete references see below). Also of great value is the MatchMaker software. Although the fungal match making tool might not always work for us, it is revolutionary when trying to identify a mushroom by certain traits like “smells like garlic”, “pink spores and purple cap” or looking up all mushrooms growing on wood in clusters. In addition, the vast collection of PNW mushroom photos in MatchMaker is really unrivaled.


I love using photos to narrow down the search when identifying a mushroom, but photos are limited too. There are only visual clues, no information regarding smell, taste or consistence of the fungal tissue, not to mention chemical reactions etc. However, this information is integrated in detailed written descriptions, when using a key to identify a mushroom. Most helpful information for keying out a mushroom is David Arora's “Mushrooms Demystified” or the keys authored by the PNW Key Council. Relying on descriptions for identification requires learning a lot of mycological terminology. This is sometimes scary and seems tedious, but with each term a distinctive characteristic comes alive that helps us identify mushrooms and see differences, some of them hard to recognize without labeling such a phenomena. Another great resource is the internet, where you can google for detailed descriptions and a range of images. Just make sure the webpages you are consulting have been authored by someone who really knows what he or she is doing.


Habitat and Seasonality

Looking for any mushroom, it helps a great deal to know in which habitat to look. Even if you check weekly throughout the year you will not find a desired mushroom in the wrong habitat. Still you could face a similar challenge looking in the right spot if you are looking during the 10 months of the year the mushroom is not growing, due to the seasonality of the growth of fruiting bodies. Moreover, following the current weather pattern as applied to fruiting season will better help you to be able to predict this years fruiting season in order to avoid going out on a foray and coming home with an empty basket.


The best and safest way to learn about edible mushrooms is to learn from people who have applied their knowledge successfully for many, many years and survived their fungal foraging. Although I am collecting mushrooms for forty years now, still most of the time whenever I want to try a new edible species, I try to eat or at least to collect it with someone who has been experienced with this species for years. This way, each year I am trying some new species and continually growing my knowledge of edible mushrooms. Having said this, I should state that it is really not about the quantity of edibles one is familiar with. Actually, the range of really excellent wild edible mushrooms is rather limited. From a beginners perspective this is great news, but it would be lovely if we had really dozens and dozens of choice wild edible mushrooms, but this is not the case. Being familiar with five or ten choice edibles like chanterelles, hedgehogs, morels, king boletes, lobsters, princes, shaggy parasols, cauliflower mushrooms, lion manes, oysters and angel wings is fully sufficient to have a wide range of great mushroom hunting experiences through the year.