Identifying Mushrooms

[Tack]

Hi,

Despite now having at least three books which claim to be able to identify edible fungi fro poisonous, I still struggle to tell the different species apart.

If anyone on this forum who is an "expert" on fungi, and who lives within spitting distance of the Black Country and is willing to spend a few hours walking through some woods with me there is a drink in it for them.

Tack

 

[Nat]

Which sort of books do you have?
I'm no expert but i've found Collins Nature Guides - Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Europe has helped me with it's clear photographs and descriptions of the differing parts of toadstools and mushrooms.

 

[addo]

The kingfisher guides are excellent and spore prints help a lot. Im no expert and dont live local im afraid.

 

[Tack]

Hi,
Thanks for the response so far.

I have a Collins Gem "Food For Free"; The "River Cottage Handbook Of Mushrooms"; Ray Mears' "Wild Food" and "The Wild Gourmets".

I suspect my problems may stem from not knowing individual fungi when they are less than fully grown. That said I picked three different species yesterday, at least one of which was fully developed and can find no identical visual representation in any of the books. Perhaps what I need is a course?

Tack

 

[spamel]

Which sort of books do you have?
I'm no expert but i've found Collins Nature Guides - Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain and Europe has helped me with it's clear photographs and descriptions of the differing parts of toadstools and mushrooms.

Stand by for a telling off from The Mushroom Lady! She says there are all manner of mistakes in that book! I have it and thought it was really good too, for the boletes it will do fine.

Can I suggest that you limit yourself to one gtroup for the time being, the easiest being the boletes. None of them will kill you, although you may end up rotten and bad if you eat satans bolete. They are very easy to distinguish as they have a sponge like underside, some of them change colour when cut or bruised.

Try Rogers mushrooms aswell, the site doesn't seem to be working for me at the moment but it is a fantastic resource.

 

[eraaij]

Check outhttp://tomvolkfungi.net/ for many interesting reads and links.

-Emile

 

[xylaria]

Stand by for a telling off from The Mushroom Lady! She says there are all manner of mistakes in that book! I have it and thought it was really good too, for the boletes it will do fine.
.

I don't tell people off, what kind of ogre do you think I am. I think the book is pants because ediblilty information was written by paraniod idoit, and I think it would make very hard to learn the subject if you are frightened of it. I think the field guide I use is pants as well because the key is half the book and it reads like you need a botony degree to get the hang of it.

West midlands black country, I have half term next week so i can go any where in public transport range. I am due an urgent op on my thumb other wise I would go to a meet. So I am kind of free. I can give some tips to help learn to ID them on your own.

Send a PM if you are interested.

 

[gregorach]

I suspect my problems may stem from not knowing individual fungi when they are less than fully grown. That said I picked three different species yesterday, at least one of which was fully developed and can find no identical visual representation in any of the books. Perhaps what I need is a course?

Firstly, don't even try to identify every mushroom to start with - there are literally thousands and you need a large collection of reference books, a microscope, and a lot of free time to do the job properly. Unless you've got a burning interest in mycology for its own sake, the vast majority of species are of little interest. Many do do not appear in any of the smaller books.

Another thing to bear in mind is that fungi are very variable little things - you'll often find that they don't look exactly]/i] like the pictures in the books.

I know it's very tempting to want to identify everything, but that way lies madness... (Or at least a very time-consuming hobby ).