9 minute read
Edible and Poisonous Wild Mushrooms
Edible a
Wild Mushrooms
by Charlotte Lukes
Author's Note: This article is not meant to encourage anyone to eat wild mushrooms. Ignorance and carelessness are the major reasons why people su er poisoning and sometimes death.
Wild mushrooms have their particular growing season and are dependent on adequate soil moisture to develop. Many mycophagists (people who eat fungi such as mushrooms) know the yellow morel mushroom and look for it in the spring, but they never nd it in the autumn, when most other species are appearing.
There are several types of common (true) morels in Door County. The black one is o en the rst to appear in late April and is frequently seen near conifer trees. It tends to have a more pointed top than the yellow variety. Some experts say that this species may cause digestive upset when eaten.
The three types of morels that I have seen in Door County are black, yellow and half-free. Species names have changed over the years, and today, detailed study reveals that there are 19 DNA-de ned species in North America, 14 of which are new. Some gray morels that we found one year are actually the immature fruiting bodies of the yellow species.
Half-free morels, Morchella punctipes (mor-CHEL-la PUNK-ti-pees), are seldom seen and almost look like a type of Verpa species.
True morels are hollow inside and have a distinct pattern of pits and ridges on the outside of the cap. False morels, in the Gyromitra (jy-row-ME-tra) family, are partly hollow and partly solid inside and have an uneven, contorted body without the deep pits and ridges. Some may have a toxin that contains monomethylhydrazine, which is a lethal component of rocket fuel. I’ve found these growing both in the spring and in the fall.
It’s best to eat mushrooms in moderation and not overindulge. Some friends shared in the 16 pounds of yellow morels we picked one day in May and gorged themselves. They got sick because mushrooms are not easy to digest in great quantities. And all edible mushrooms should be cooked and not eaten raw.
There are few other mushrooms of edible quality available until midsummer, when the golden chanterelle, Cantharellus cibarius (kan-tha-REL-us cy-BARE-ee-us), appears. This is a much-sought-a er, eshy mushroom that, when fresh, can have a faint apricot fragrance. It grows in soil, mostly in deciduous woodlands.
True chanterelles are deep eggyolk yellow, not orange like the false chanterelle, Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca (hy-groh-for-OP-sis or-anTY-i-ca). Most books list the false one as , but a recent text merely says it can cause problems for some people. The false one tends to grow on rotting wood and is a bit tough in texture.
Most of the good edible mushrooms begin to appear in late summer and begin to appear in late summer and early autumn, and a few grow a er a spell of cold weather. I remember during the summer of 1992, when my late husband, Roy, and I constructed a tall fence around our large vegetable garden to keep deer out. We nished garden to keep deer out. We nished it in mid-June, and on Father’s Day, there was a killing frost that destroyed many of the tender plants.
A week later, a heavy rain came, and then we saw shaggy mane and honey cap mushrooms in our woods. These two species never grow in midsummer – only during the cooler days of early September – but the extreme cold followed by rain brought these mushrooms into fruit at the end of June!
Mushrooms grow from mycelium in the ground or in dead or dying trees and do ground or in dead or dying trees and do best with adequate moisture. Because best with adequate moisture. Because they are dependent on nutrients from they are dependent on nutrients from
other sources – they have no chlorophyll to make their own food – they grow more abundantly when regular plants are nishing their season.
That’s why September and October seem to be the best times to nd the greatest variety of mushrooms. Shaggy manes, Coprinus comatus (ko-PRY-nus ko-MAY-tus), are one of the easiest to identify. They grow in lawns and along roadsides from late August into October. Once thought to be , they are actually quite edible when thoroughly cooked. They give o a lot of water when fried; then the heat can be turned to low to allow them to brown slowly until they’re almost crisp.
Pu ball mushrooms come in several forms and sizes. The giant pu ball, Calvatia gigantea (cal-VAY-she-a gyGAN-tee-a), is the most familiar and one of the safest to cook and consume.
There is no mushroom of that size and texture that is . It does not have any avor, so adding some seasoning when frying it will help.
Oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus ostreatus (plu-ROW-tus os-tree-A-tus), are sought by some because they’re easy to collect. They o en grow in clusters on fallen hardwoods, so they’re easy to see. Like all vegetables, they must be eaten when they’re really fresh. Maggots and larvae of certain insects like to invade them as they become old. Every species of the Entoloma (en-towLO-ma) genus is . One that we used to call the aborted Entoloma might actually be another species. It develops at the base of a tree or in soil near the tree and is merely a white, slightly round or misshapen growth. You would not even think of it as a mushroom.
This species was thought to be attacked by the mycelium of the honey cap to form the aborted growth, but now some scientists think it might be the honey cap that is being attacked by the Entoloma species. When fresh, these white globs are easy to harvest, but it is vital to make sure you are not picking a white Amanita species.
Amanita mushrooms are called the aristocrats of the fungus world. They are stately, beautiful and quite distinctive, and some are the most lethal of all known mushrooms. Get to know all the species in your location when collecting. Amanita bisporigera, the destroying angel, is deadly.
There are seven basic types of mushroom poisons. The Amanitas, plus a few other species, destroy the liver when digested. The painful result of eating them may last six to 10 days before you die of liver failure.
There is a large number of edible mushroom species that are part of a
(Clockwise from top left) Here is the deadliest mushroom in our county: the destroying angel, Amanita bisporigera. Photo by Roy Lukes.
The false morel is irregularly wrinkled on the outside and partly solid on the inside. Photo by Charlotte Lukes.
Golden chanterelle mushrooms have blunt gills that fork several times. Photo by Charlotte Lukes.
Shaggy manes are edible only when they’re pure white inside. As spores develop, the mushroom begins to turn gray and then dissolves into black ink. Photo by Roy Lukes.
Giant pu balls are edible when they’re pure white inside and have an even texture to the fl esh. Photo by Roy Lukes.
Oyster mushrooms have no stems and often grow in overlapping clusters on fallen hardwood trees. Photo by Charlotte Lukes.
(Center fold) True morels come in di erent colors, but all of them have regular pits and ridges on the outside and are hollow on the inside. Photo by Charlotte Lukes.
genus that also contains members, and look-alikes can fool the inexperienced hunter. It’s best to go out with a local expert when learning about wild mushrooms and exploring various habitats.
Also invest in a good eld guide for your part of the country that is up to date with the species and information about edible and mushrooms. The recently republished Mushrooms of Northeast North America by George Barron shows New Edition on the cover and discusses mushrooms found from the Midwest to New England and parts of southern Canada.
Read your mushroom eld guide right from page one to learn how to use the book and look for mushrooms. Identify the trees growing near the mushrooms you’re nding. Determine whether the fungi are growing in soil or on wood. Carefully examine every part of the mushroom to help you compare it to the text in the book, and never compare just the pictures. That is being careless and ignorant.
Remember that there may be bold mushroom hunters and old mushroom hunters, but there are seldom any old, bold mushroom hunters!
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