How do I identify an edible mushroom?

Question

How do I know if one is poisonous?

Answer 1

It takes years of practice and experience and still, every so often, an "expert" gets fooled and dies.

NEVER pick your own in the wild.

Answer 2

Even the best of the best have been poisioned by these lovely umbella capped plants.

Because some edible and poisonous fungi have very similar appearances, mistakes are usually the result of misidentification based on superficial characteristics.
There is much folklore providing misleading tips on defining features of poisonous mushrooms[citation needed], such as:

Having bright flashy colours. (False: some very toxic species are pure white, such as the destroying angel).

Lack of snail or insect infestation. (False: while a fungus may be harmless to invertebrates, it could be toxic to humans.

The death cap for instance is often perforated by insect larvae).

Becomes black when touched by silverware or an onion. (False: most mushrooms tend to darken as they wither).

Poisonous mushrooms smell and taste horrible. (False: some poisonous mushrooms taste delicious, according to victims).

Any mushroom becomes safe if cooked enough. (False: the chemical structure of some toxins are very stable, even at high temperature).

In reality, there are no simple guidelines to identify poisonous mushrooms. The only completely foolproof rule for preventing mushroom poisoning is of course abstinence — many believe it is better to be safe than sorry.

A common rule followed by mushroom hunters is "when in doubt, throw it out"


If your not a well seasoned mushroom hunter then your chances are high for poisioning.

Best to leave it to the mushroom farmers.

Answer 3

Nothing to fool around with. You need YEARS of experience. If you can find a 90 year old mushroom hunter of slavic or Russian descent to be your "guide" go for it. Otherwise back off.

Answer 4

in case you do no longer fall unwell after ingesting them, they're suitable for eating. yet heavily, mushrooms (looking an identical) that are suitable for eating on one continent, could be poisonous on yet another. some Asians have stumbled on that out the tricky way. till you recognize which mushrooms are suitable for eating the place you're, stay faraway from them till you're into enjoying Russian roulette.

Answer 5

feed it to mikey...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYEXzx-TINc

"...when gathering, gather only one species at a time, checking each specimen individually...
...[you] should be able to find it via the keys in at least three books...
...be able to state with confidence what distinguishes the specimen in [your] hand from the 3-5 species most easily mistaken for it....
...draw no conclusions until [you] have a definitive spore print, and a cross section of a sample--gill connectivity, stem hollow/stuffed, bruising color, etc....
...be confident of the limits of variability for [the] species...
...photos should not contradict [your] keyed identification...
...books have to agree, not only that it is edible, but that it is WORTH eating...
...limit your first taste....
...[limit your] second taste (more than 24 hours later) [to] about a teaspoon-full....
...wait ANOTHER 24 hours before trying a full-sized serving...
...do not eat more than one species in a meal...
http://www.cris.com/~Czere/rules.shtml


unless you're talkin' about shrooms....

Answer 6

Here you are.

http://www.boschfoto.nl/html/menupaddestoelen/menumushrooms.html

I did not know there were so many mushrooms.