When in doubt, throw it out!

Some Amanitas growing near where I live

I read yesterday on WUSA9.com that three people in the DC region recently got poisoned by wild mushrooms (supposedly by A. virosa a.k.a. Destroying Angel) and that doctors at Georgetown are recommending people not to eat any wild mushrooms. I understand doctors trying to be as comprehensive as possible on their recommendations in order to reach the largest number of people. After all, promoting health is one of the major tenets of medicine (and it should be). On the other hand, I don't think that it is fair to blame all wild mushrooms for these poisonings and to generate more mycophobia because of these unfortunate events. Many plants, as well as fish, molluscs, insects, reptiles and fungi could cause poisoning (try eating puffer fish or making a salad out of poison ivy ;-). I believe that the problem here was not mushroom picking itself but reckless mushroom picking. Indeed, I know more than a dozen people that have been eating wild mushrooms for decades and that are still around and never had to be hospitalized for their mushroom picking habits. Quite the opposite, they have free access to some of the best edible fungi around! Not only that, these people have found a great excuse to go outside, meet people and to keep their brains active (there are more than 50.000 known species of macrofungi and learning how to identify some of them can be quite challenging). In any case, the role of this blog post is to, perhaps, fix some of the prejudices about mushrooms picking by attacking some myths.

The Myths
1) Mushroom picking is very dangerous
Like driving a car, mushroom picking and identification are skills that are acquired by education and training. Mushroom picking skills are usually learned from other mushroom pickers like family and friends, and from good guide books. The same way I wouldn't recommend anyone to buy a car and go driving without getting a license first, I wouldn't recommend anyone to start picking whatever fungi is growing on their yard or woods and cooking them. On the other hand, if you take the time to learn it properly, both driving and mushroom picking can be very fun and useful.

2) Most wild mushrooms are poisonous.
The minority of wild mushrooms are poisonous (it is estimated by some than less than 5% are). That doesn't mean that one should approach mushroom picking without respect! One should always remember that poisonous mushrooms can be very deadly poisonous.

3) One can easily mistake a deadly mushroom for an edible one
This is usually not the case (if you take proper care) but it is what probably scares most people and makes some ask "why bother with a hobby that could be so dangerous?". The answer is, in my opinion, somewhat technical.
There are many types of mushrooms, which are broadly divided based on their reproductive organs (usually, but not necessarily, the surface under the cap). Most dangerous mushrooms have reproductive organs organized in the form of gills (like the white button mushroom you buy at the supermarket). The gills are a nice adaptation to increase surface area so that mushrooms can produce the maximum amount of spores without having to resort to gigantic caps.  Unfortunately, mushrooms that looks the least dangerous (i.e. looks similar to the ones most people are used to eat) are exactly the ones beginners should avoid. Indeed, the whole idea of mushroom picking  for the table is learning how to pick species that you are 100% confident about their identification (or that you can deal with the risk of mistaken it for a lookalike). This is summarized by the mushroom pickers adage "when in doubt, throw it out". 
For beginners, the best strategy is to stick with species that don't have deadly lookalikes or, in other words - don't be bold (this can be summarized by the second adage "there are old or bold mushroom pickers but not bold and old mushroom pickers". For instance, if one starts with mushrooms like morels, chanterelles and puff balls (and the mushroom are properly cooked), even if a mistake is made, chances are that one is not going to die (gastrointestinal upset may happen). On the other hand if one is looking for nice looking white gilled mushrooms (or even small brown gilled mushrooms) and a mistake is made (for instance, an Agaricus is swapped for an Amanita or a Psilocybes is swapped for a Galerina), serious hepatic and renal damage (and potentially death in 10-15% of the cases) could happen. 
One last note: mushroom identification is region dependent and, therefore, it is recommended that one learns how to identify the local mushrooms and that one sticks to them. Many cases of mushroom poisoning happen with immigrants because they try to apply their local knowledge/culture to other regions.

4) Mushroom picking is very hard and complex
Again, a common misconception. Mushroom picking is a very popular hobby in many parts of our planet and it is enjoyed by millions of people of all ages. Indeed, in eastern Europe and the Nordic countries, mushroom picking is probably the most popular hobby.  Most of my Finnish friends know how to pick Morels and Chanterelles. Because so many people pick mushrooms, in the countries where this is a popular hobby, a culture is developed, and this is passed from generation to generation. People learn how to pick mushrooms from their parents and grand parents, and when time come, they pass it to their kids.

5) The only way to learn mushroom picking is from your family members
False again. You can join a Mycological Association near your home (that's what I did). Alternatively you can try to learn about mushroom picking by reading books (I suggest doing this very carefully if doing it exclusively) or by tagging along friends that know how to do it. Mushroom clubs exist in most capitals around the US and in many countries. They usually organize forays, seminars and other events to educate members and the general public about mushroom identification and other aspects of amateur mycology.

A non comprehensive list is below:

Mycological Associations 
International
International Mycological Associations (IMA)
European Mycological Association (EMA)
African Mycological Association (AMA)
Latin American Mycological Association (ALM)
Canadian Mycological Associations
Gulf States Mycological Association (GSMYCO)
Australasian Mycological Society
British Mycological Society (BMS)

USA
North American Mycological Association (NAMA)
Mycological Association of Washington DC (MAW)
Mycological Association of New Jersey (MANJ)
Minnesota Mycological Society (MMS)
The Connecticut-Westchester Mycological Association (COMA)
Illinois Mycological Association (IMA)
Sonoma County Mycological Association (SOMA)
Maine Mycological Association (MMA)
Western Montana Mycological Association (WMMA)
Mycological Society of San Francisco (MSSF)
Wisconsin Mycological Association (WMA)
New York Mycological Society (NYMS)

Chicken-fat Suillus

A couple of weeks ago, after hurricane Irene, I picked a large variety of pored mushrooms from the lawns around where I live and promised here that I would try to post something about them once a week. Actually, with a newborn at home now, I was lucky to find some time today to write this little post.

The mushroom I'll describe in detail below was specially interesting to me since it had a variety of peculiar phenotypic characteristics (i.e. apressed patches, glandular stipe, sticky surface etc) that made it easily stand out from the crowd.

Date: 09/05/2011
Location: Rollins Park, MD
Habitat: Solitary, growing on grass/moss, near pine trees

Measurements
Pileus diameter - 5.0 cm
Pileus height - 15 mm
Stipe length - 37.7 mm
Stipe diameter at apex - 8.7 mm
Stipe diameter at middle - 7.1 mm
Stipe diameter at base - 7.1 mm

Description
Pileus - yellow with brown appressed patches, flat with umbo and depression around it, round, margin is entire, smell is fragrant, somethwat citric. Context is light yellow, doesn't stain, flavor is somewhat acidic.
Hymenium - with large (~1mm) pores, beige with orange tone, does not stain when bruised, tubes are 5-6 mm long
Stipe - central, solid, equal, slender, with red/orange spots, sticky on the outside (resinous), color is similar to hymenium, does not stain when bruised, with glandular dots, without ring.
Spore print - ochre/brown

Impressions
This is a member of the Suillus genus, most probably Suillus americanus, an edible (some consider it choice, most consider it mediocre) mushroom that grows under white pine in eastern North America. Some of the characteristics of the specimen I found don't fit with the description from the key in North American Boletes. For instance, the mushroom did not stain my fingers, flavor was a bit acid (it should have mild non-distinctive taste) and the context did not stain purplish-brown when cut (I did not notice any staining at all). Despite the differences, I would still call it S. americanus given that all the other characteristics fit the key and it looks a lot like the photos from all my guide books. According to Roody's Mushrooms of West Virginia, there are reports that this mushroom can cause allergic contact dermatitis in some individuals and, according to Kuo's 100 Edible Mushrooms, it causes gastrointestinal irritation in some individuals. Some lookalikes are S. subaureus, which grows in broad-leaved woods, and S. sibiricus which has brown spots on the pileus, is darker or more dingy yellow, has a thicker stipe and is also associated with pine. To my knowledge there aren't any poisonous Suillus mushrooms.

References
Bessette AE, Roody WC and Bessette AR. North American Boletes, A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored Mushrooms, Pages 227 and 332.
Kuo M.  100 Edible Mushrooms. Pages 215-6.
Lincoff GH. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, Page 581.
Roody WC. Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians, Page 335.

A Bolete with Reticulated Stipe

This year my block has been pretty giving in regards to boletes (and other mushrooms). Perhaps this is due to the fact that there is a good amount of oak, maple and pine trees planted around here and that they are all quite old (I would guess at least 50 years old). Perhaps is just luck or, maybe, this happened everywhere in the DC region and I am just not aware of it. In any case, I've been trying to pick some different boletes everyday I go out to see if I get a chance to play with the identification keys from "North American Boletes: A Color Guide to the Fleshy Pored Mushrooms" by  Bessete and colleagues. Obviously I haven't had the time to post all the boletes I found, but I'll try to post something once a week (let's see how it is going to be once my second son is born next week ;-). As a last comment, today was a perfect day for picking mushrooms around here and there were hundreds of mushrooms growing in the lawns around here (Rollins Park, Rockville, MD). On a first look, I could easily identify A. volvata, A. amerimuscaria,  A. panterina, A. campestris, C. craniformis/C. cyathiformis, P. tinctorius, some Tylopilus sp., and various Russulas (red and yellow). There were also a few other species that I could not identify and that I'll try to post about later this week. Today I am going to post something about a bolete I found a few days ago.

Date: 08/28/2011
Location: Rollins Park, Rockville, MD
Habitat: Growing on grass, under oak, solitary

Description
Pileus - Orange/brown, velvety, somewhat flat with depressed center, ovoid, margin is incurved, context, context is light salmon color, flavor and taste are non-distinctive
Hymenium - yellow, with pores, pores are irregular and polygonal, surface does not stain when bruised, tubes are approximately 5 mm long
Stipe - solid, equal, eccentric, surface is coarsely reticulated, color is light beige, context is white and it turns light pink fast upon cutting, no ring or partial veil observed.
Spore print - not obtained

Impressions
This seems to be a specimen of Boletus illudens, an edible mushroom that usually grows between July-October, under oak, on the East Coast. Is is also known as Xerocomus illudens.

Update (09/06/2011)
I have posted some photos and the description on Mushroomobserver.org to see what other people think and I'll update this page later to include this information.

Update (09/06/2011)
Dave W from Mushroomobserver.org has suggested this specimen looks more like B. tenax. According to Roy Halling (also at Mushroomobserver.org) both mushrooms are very similar but the context is pale yellow in B. illudens and white in B. tenax. Also the stipe color is yellow in B. illudens and whitish in B. tenax.

References
Bessette AE, Roody WC, Bessette AR. North American Boletes: A  Color Guide to the Flesh Pored Mushrooms, Page 121

Two edible puffballs

On late summer/early fall, with a little bit of luck, it is possible to find some pretty large edible puffballs. Although I wasn't too lucky this summer, last week my mother in law brought me three large puffballs, two of which were in great shape for the pan. Also, when walking to work this Friday, I found a golf ball shaped (and sized) mushroom growing on the lawn near the Twinbrook Metro Station. The mushroom was easy to spot due to its bright white color that was contrasting with the green. Although I've found these two types of mushrooms before, I had never found such fresh and young specimens and therefore I never had a good chance to taste them. The fact that it is so easy to identify them tempts me to try them later today. Indeed, because of its characteristic shape, size and the lack of dangerous lookalikes, large puffballs like Calvatia craniformis, Calvatia gigantea and Calvatia cyathiformis are considered by some 'good mushrooms for beginners'.



First specimen
Date: 08/31/2011

Location: Bowie, MD


Habitat: Gregarious, growing on grass
Description
Mushrooms are pear shaped with light-brown to beige cuticle. The top part of the mushroom has shallow cracks which give it a brain-like appearance. The crack troughs are darker than the rest of the cuticle. Context is bright white, spongy and homogeneous. Smell is non-distinctive. There is no clear stipe or hymenium.
Measurements
Diameter - 10-11 cm
Height - 10 cm
Impression
This is a specimen of Calvatia, possibly C. craniformis or C. cyathiformis. Both are edible mushrooms and the only way to identify them is to look at mature specimens and compare the color of the spore mass. In C. craniformis the spore mass is yellow, while in C. cyathiformis the spore mass is purple-brown. C. cyathiformis is more common in lawns and urban settings while C. craniformis is more common in woods. Both grow to very large sizes (not as large C. gigantea) and occur on late summer-early fall.

Lycoperdon perlatum

Second specimen
Date: 09/02/2011
Location: Parking lot of Twinbrook Metro Station, Rockville, MD
Habitat: Gregarious, growing on grass
Description
Somewhat pear shaped with tappered base, cuticle is composed of multiple polyhedral warts. Context is white, spongy and homogeneous. Smell is non-distinctive. No spore mass observed.
Impression
This is possibly a specimen of Lycoperdon perlatum (a.k.a. Gem-studded Puffball), a common summer-fall mushroom, which is edible when young. The taste is described as being inferior to Calvatias and because of it's small size, one should be careful not to mistake if for Amanita buds.

References
Roody, WC. Mushrooms of West Virginia and Appalachians. Pages 440 and  445.