Edible wild mushroom identification book written by AI

[tggzzz]

It isn't surprising that a Latvian has better information about fungi; foraging for fungi is regarded as a wierd activity, best left to "The Continentals"!

My father knows them fairly well - however there is not much to gather these days. Back then (when I was a kid) we ran around on the farmland in the village (northern Germany) and collected heaps of mushrooms. While the farmland is still there and is still the same, there are no mushrooms. I wonder if they have been killed by the plentiful use of fungizides for farming crops.

However we noticed the same in Denmark. While the forests had plenty of fungi some decades ago, they are pretty rare now. Which is a shame.

They typically prefer undisturbed unimproved unmanaged land.

If fungi disappear, we are in serious trouble - they are responsible for breaking down most organic matter before the components can be recycled.

As for frequency, that's always difficult to assess. Presuming you see them less often, that could also be due to more people picking them[1] and/or cars meaning people can travel further to find them.

[1] true in the UK due to TV/etc programmes and particularly because there are far more (knowledgeable) Eastern Europeans (traditional "competition": Poles and Czechs) living here, despite brexit.

[tggzzz]

Here is a giant puffball I found this summer.

And here are some more normal mushrooms I pick.

Oh hell. This is going to end up like the TEA group: full of "porn"

[helius]

Almost all of the "commercial" mushrooms are decay fungi that break down dead matter such as roots of dying trees. So they can be easily grown on sterilized wood chips or rice hulls.

Many foraged mushrooms are mycorrhizal, so they can only ever grow in association with living trees. There is no way to grow them artificially either. Healthy caution is a good thing, but picking doesn't require encyclopedic knowledge: some easily recognized families (boletes, chanterelles, morels) have no poisonous members.

[wraper]

some easily recognized families (boletes, chanterelles, morels) have no poisonous members.

There are poisonous boletes, such as Satans bolete, although I'm not aware of any that are deadly poisonous. Overall boletes are the safest to forage, you just need to know a few that aren't good. Chanterelles have a poisonous Jack-o’lantern lookalike, haven't seen those IRL though. Some people confuse morels with Gyromitra which in Russia are edible after boiling and discarding the broth, and barely poisonous even raw. However can be deadly poisonous when grow in western part of Europe.

[helius]

Yes, Gyromitra (false morels) contain hydrazines. Great for rockets, not so much for eating. They have a netted surface similar to true morels, but the overall shape is totally different (saddle shaped).

I had forgotten about the Jack-O-Lantern, thanks for reminding me. It has definitely been confused with chanterelles, although there are some features that identify it easily (unforked gills, and it glows in the dark!)

The red-mouthed bolete is also poisonous, as you said, although I don't think it has ever caused serious illness or death.

[Zero999]

What's so dangerous is some poisonous mushrooms taste good.

[Bud]

People have been consuming mushrooms for thousand years. It is just not a thing in North America. NA has to educate itself.

[TimFox]

The Cook County Forest Preserves in the Chicago area are foraged for mushrooms, especially by people of Bohemian descent, although removing any plant material from the Preserves is strictly forbidden by statute.
https://chicagomushroomman.wordpress.com/2023/08/04/cook-county-forest-preserves-claim-foragers-are-destroying-native-plants/
https://fpdcc.com/about/rules-regulations/

[wraper]

The Cook County Forest Preserves in the Chicago area are foraged for mushrooms, especially by people of Bohemian descent, although removing any plant material from the Preserves is strictly forbidden by statute.
https://chicagomushroomman.wordpress.com/2023/08/04/cook-county-forest-preserves-claim-foragers-are-destroying-native-plants/
https://fpdcc.com/about/rules-regulations/

If only they knew fungi are not plants. And removing fruiting bodies (mushrooms) does not harm fungi either. They would rot after a few days anyway.

[TimFox]

Probably, the statutes follow the older definition of fungi as part of the "plant kingdom".
Even so, the FAQ I cited states:  "The collection of mushrooms, plants, animals or any natural or cultural item is prohibited."  Perhaps you can collect mould if you have a good lawyer.
There was a famous Supreme Court legal decision classifying the tomato as a vegetable (rather than fruit) in tariff law because it was normally consumed like a vegetable, not like an apple.
"Before the introduction of molecular methods for phylogenetic analysis, taxonomists considered fungi to be members of the plant kingdom because of similarities in lifestyle: both fungi and plants are mainly immobile, and have similarities in general morphology and growth habitat. Although inaccurate, the common misconception that fungi are plants persists among the general public due to their historical classification, as well as several similarities." (Wikipedia)
Apparently, the modern taxonomic definition of fungi as a separate kingdom dates back to around 1980.

[Wallace Gasiewicz]

When I was a child, we used to pick mushrooms and can them.   (Midwest US)
Aureoboletus projectellus was one of them easily found in coniferous forests, but their "Inky Cap" cousins were more common. We did not eat Inkys although the Inky Cap mushrooms were not considered poisonous. They are really cool though, Fun to watch them turn black when cut.

We only picked the mushrooms that we knew to be safe. Sometimes we would bring some unknown species home and show them to older relatives to see if they could be identified.  We did have some books also which were of some help.

[tggzzz]

When I was a child, we used to pick mushrooms and can them.   (Midwest US)
Aureoboletus projectellus was one of them easily found in coniferous forests, but their "Inky Cap" cousins were more common. We did not eat Inkys although the Inky Cap mushrooms were not considered poisonous. They are really cool though, Fun to watch them turn black when cut.

Coprinus  comatus (shaggy ink cap, lawyer's wig) is easily recognised and edible (but not worth it)is

Coprinus atramentarious contains antabuse, which is only a problem when alcohol is  consumed. It has been used as a treatment for alcoholism.

We only picked the mushrooms that we knew to be safe. Sometimes we would bring some unknown species home and show them to older relatives to see if they could be identified.  We did have some books also which were of some help.

Well, yes, but...  The problem is when you don't recognise that you don't recognise it! Small death caps look similar to small edible fumgi.

[Zero999]

The Cook County Forest Preserves in the Chicago area are foraged for mushrooms, especially by people of Bohemian descent, although removing any plant material from the Preserves is strictly forbidden by statute.
https://chicagomushroomman.wordpress.com/2023/08/04/cook-county-forest-preserves-claim-foragers-are-destroying-native-plants/
https://fpdcc.com/about/rules-regulations/

If only they knew fungi are not plants. And removing fruiting bodies (mushrooms) does not harm fungi either. They would rot after a few days anyway.

Does it not reduce the fungi's ability to reproduce? I would have thought removing the fruiting body before it has released its spore would impair its ability to spread.

[helius]

"Fruiting body" implies a structure analogous (functionally the same) to a fruit. What is the evolutionary purpose of fruit? Specifically, why go to the expense of making a fruit when the seed is the only reproductive part?

Once you've answered that question, you would understand why removing mushrooms helps, rather than hinders, the fungi's reproduction.

[wraper]

The Cook County Forest Preserves in the Chicago area are foraged for mushrooms, especially by people of Bohemian descent, although removing any plant material from the Preserves is strictly forbidden by statute.
https://chicagomushroomman.wordpress.com/2023/08/04/cook-county-forest-preserves-claim-foragers-are-destroying-native-plants/
https://fpdcc.com/about/rules-regulations/

If only they knew fungi are not plants. And removing fruiting bodies (mushrooms) does not harm fungi either. They would rot after a few days anyway.

Does it not reduce the fungi's ability to reproduce? I would have thought removing the fruiting body before it has released its spore would impair its ability to spread.

30 years long study in Switzerland has shown there is no harm from foraging whatsoever.

[SiliconWizard]

Don't worry, fungi are very likely to outlive our species by a large margin, unless of course we blow the planet up entirely, but according to some studies, that would take an enormous amount of energy that would be out of our reach completely.

[Wallace Gasiewicz]

There is a fungus among us:   

[jpanhalt]

Here's a little beauty that appeared in my lawn Saturday.  Initially, I thought it was a pile of leaves.  Sunday, I got a closer look, and the picture is this afternoon.  It's at least 10 inches across and too beautiful to eat.  It still amazes me how fast they can grow.

[helius]

At a guess, that may be Psathyrella delineata.
But I would not, of course, advocate eating any little brown gilled mushroom for obvious reasons (they can sometimes be hard to tell from Galerina spp which include deadly species)

[jpanhalt]

I only eat mushrooms from reputable sources.  Dried Italian porcini are one of my favorites for cooking.  I got a bargain on Amazon of "imported" dried porcini.  Ended up they were imported from China (obviously not in the listing). Tasted awful, and I threw them all out.  Amazon is not a reputable source for mushrooms, unless you go for Reese's in a can.

[Gyro]

Hah, yes. I would probably be more willing to buy opamps from Amazon than mushrooms! 

[TimFox]

I only eat mushrooms from reputable sources.  Dried Italian porcini are one of my favorites for cooking.  I got a bargain on Amazon of "imported" dried porcini.  Ended up they were imported from China (obviously not in the listing). Tasted awful, and I threw them all out.  Amazon is not a reputable source for mushrooms, unless you go for Reese's in a can.

"Imported":  at Japanese restaurants in the US, some of the Japanese beer with "imported" on the label is made under license in Canada, so no legal offense has been committed.

[jpanhalt]

I don't worry about Canadian Molson's beer at Japanese restaurants; I worry about imported Diphyllobothrium latum in the sushi.

[Infraviolet]

Would I be right in thinking it is pure chance that edible mushrooms have ever existed at all? Fruits are edible because the plant evolved to use various animal's guts as a transport mechanism for seeds to newgrowing grounds, but I don't think any mushrooms intend on being consumed as a means of seed transport? The advantage for going for fruit then is that most were evolved to be safe to eat, and any that aren't* would probably taste bad before you swallowed, plus different fruit species in the UK atleast, are prety distinct in appearance.

*being safe for some targeted seed carrier animal, but incompatible with specifically human digestive processes

As someone who forages for various fruits, but not mushrooms, I have the pleasure also of being able to snack on them right there in situ, not picking something you have to carry home to cook later.

[T3sl4co1l]

I suppose it's conceivable that spores might be built to survive a digestive system. This paper,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2478712/
suggests such a mechanism for yeasts vs. fruit flies.

The environmental pressure of mammals, gastropods, or invertebrates is probably relatively low overall, with adequate tolerance, avoidance, and chemical deterrence (poison) strategies in place.  Examples: inedibly dense/hard/thick/fibrous fruiting bodies; fruiting rapidly (within some days), dropping spores and retreating (or decaying) quickly (e.g. ink caps that rapidly decay to slime); and of course the many unpalatable, inedible and toxic kinds, ranging from nuisance chemicals to outright systemic poisons (whether intentionally by direct evolutionary pressure, or accidentally versus unrelated species by random coincidence).

It may also be that many fungi are simply successful enough overall, or prodigious enough per fruiting body, or have a high enough germination rate, that conservation efforts really aren't necessary; sort of the nutritional equivalent of dumping a couple bucks onto Amazon/eBay/Ali in the full expectation that you've wasted your money, and any product of value you eventually get in return is merely a bonus.  That is, whatever energy and resources went into producing the fruiting body, was already excess stored up and able to be spent, regardless of its ultimate success.

Tim