Ray mears and Amanitas

[Magnus Opus]

interesting programme tonight....

Ray goes funghi eating, touches on the dangers of amanitas, but doesnt mention the destroying angel (A. Virosa) probably the easiest one to mistake for an edible mushroom and kill yourself with.....

Probably for the best, but he also perpetuated the myth that fly agaric is poisonous.... When cooked it loses both it's much vaunted though much over estimated hallucinogenic and toxic properties and just becomes a pretty tasty mushroom..... That said, a hallucinogenic dose can give you an exceptionally unpleasant experience, and a dangerously toxic dose is not much above that, so don't take my word on any of this!

M

 

[Tadpole]

interesting programme tonight....

Ray goes funghi eating, touches on the dangers of amanitas, but doesnt mention the destroying angel (A. Virosa) probably the easiest one to mistake for an edible mushroom and kill yourself with.....

Probably for the best, but he also perpetuated the myth that fly agaric is poisonous.... When cooked it loses both it's much vaunted though much over estimated hallucinogenic and toxic properties and just becomes a pretty tasty mushroom..... That said, a hallucinogenic dose can give you an exceptionally unpleasant experience, and a dangerously toxic dose is not much above that, so don't take my word on any of this!

M

The fly-agaric contains at least four compounds that can cause poisoning in human beings: muscarine, ibotenic acid, muscimol, and muscazone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria.
I for one would gladly sacrifice, punctiliousness for the sake of safety, and for the prevention of harm to any Sun reader, who may inadvertently stumble on to Rays programme looking for readers wives (oops sorry) footballers wives. It is common knowledge on this site that the red bit of a yew berry is harmless, but would you share that with others who are less careful about what they eat and how they eat it?

 

[gregorach]

Was I the only person wincing as he tore up the mycelium of every 'shroom he picked? I mean, sure, take a complete specimen if you need to do an ID at home, but if you already know what it is then cut the stipe and leave the mycelium intact! Grrr...

 

[Magnus Opus]

Was I the only person wincing as he tore up the mycelium of every 'shroom he picked? I mean, sure, take a complete specimen if you need to do an ID at home, but if you already know what it is then cut the stipe and leave the mycelium intact! Grrr...

Ya, I wondered about that, he was a little brutal with them

 

[twisted firestarter]

"It is common knowledge on this site that the red bit of a yew berry is harmless, but would you share that with others who are less careful about what they eat and how they eat it?"

My son ate a large handfull of yew berries when he was 3 years old. I panicked and rang NHS direct who assured me that he was in no life threatening danger. I took him to casualty as a precaution and they said the same, presumably because they use the same database. I am not convinced they have their facts right but am certainly no expert. I thought the seeds were very dangerous. Fortunately I managed to establish that my son had spat out the seeds when he ate the berries and he was fine.

I also wanted to comment on the hawthorn jam RM made. Looked very appealing but I was told by a herbal practitioner that you should avoid eating hawthorn berries if you suffer from blood pressure problems- maybe worth considering.

Lastly to get back to the original thread on mushroms, I too winced at the way RM harvested the mushrooms, as I understand it the mycelium can be damaged by being disturbed and it is better to cut them at the base with a sharp blade.

 

[gregorach]

Yew seeds are very dangerous.

Interesting point about the hawthorn berries - can you be a bit more specific? According to Plants for a Future:

Both the fruits and flowers of hawthorns are well-known in herbal folk medicine as a heart tonic and modern research has borne out this use. The fruits and flowers have a hypotensive effect as well as acting as a direct and mild heart tonic. They are especially indicated in the treatment of weak heart combined with high blood pressure, they are also used to treat a heart muscle weakened by age, for inflammation of the heart muscle, arteriosclerosis and for nervous heart problems.

 

[Scuba Pete]

I was just reading my "Food for Free" book. It states that you should not cut them with a knife, or yank them out as this can damage the plant. It states that you should twist gently until it breaks free.

 

[dave k]

I was just reading my "Food for Free" book. It states that you should not cut them with a knife, or yank them out as this can damage the plant. It states that you should twist gently until it breaks free.

This is what I do - unless it's a bracket fungus or the like, where I cut it as close to the wood as possible.

 

[gregorach]

Hmmm... seems there's a degree of disagreement about the best way to harvest 'shrooms then. I was always taught to cut the stem close to the ground.

 

[dommyracer]

I was just reading my "Food for Free" book. It states that you should not cut them with a knife, or yank them out as this can damage the plant. It states that you should twist gently until it breaks free.

Whenever I've been on fungal forays, this is the way mycologists have done it as well......

 

[gregorach]

Perhaps I have been misinformed then?

 

[dommyracer]

Who knows??

I don't honestly think that either way would harm the funghi, you're only removing the fruiting body (like picking an apple from a tree).

I'd rather take the whole body, to make sure I can 100% positively identify it.

I was of the understanding that as long as you left behind some of the whole fruiting bodies to enable them to drop spore and let the funghi spread then this was fine.

 

[gregorach]

Like I say, I can definitely see the point if you need it to do an ID, but if you need the whole thing to ID a cep, you shouldn't be picking mushrooms...

I'm just curious as to what the best practice actually is.

 

[Scuba Pete]

It mentions that you must have the whole stork to accurately identify the fungi. I guess there must be ones that look very similar and you need the whole think to be sure. This is perhaps why you should not use a knife. The book does not give a reason for not cutting.

 

[JohnC]

I was impressed by the profs prescence of mind, writing the fungii name out before he passed out.

Regarding picking, I understood that cutting would not result in a new "fruit" growing, that the main body of the plant was below ground. Is this correct?

 

[dommyracer]

The main body of the funghi is indeed below the surface - I imagine a cut stem would die back allowing a new fruit to grow, much like it would if the fruit body had been allowed to die without being harvested.

Now, we know that cut on a tree can be susceptible to fungal infection, could a cut section of a fungus also be sucetptible to fungal infection?

There something to think about...

 

[Don Redondo]

don't make the mistake of equating the fungal world with the vegetation world... two totally different domains........... what is considerd good practice in one does'nt translate to the other.

and yes twisting is correct, although to be honest I often cut, but that's just to keep the 'shroom clean.

 

[Pipistrelle]

Apart from the cross contamination of the shrooms your cutting, remember these babies can be really nasty. Pulling them only contaminates the outsides which will hopefully not be enough to poison you, but cutting slides right through all the toxins concentrated at the soil height.... not good

ask yourself why are they poisonous and which points are the most toxic build ups likely to be.... surely cap and foot.

I have only seen one destroying angel in my life, a beautiful but deadly thing.

I run fungal forays to distinguish mushrooms for the public and I am NOT ALLOWED to tell them if they are edible or not.

Having seen the stupidity of "the public" even after instruction on keeping safe with mushrooms I can see why ray stuck to some really easily IDable mushies.

 

[Rob]

I was impressed by the profs prescence of mind, writing the fungii name out before he passed out.
QUOTE]

I wonder what the paramedics thought of the note when they arrived.

 

[xylaria]

The reason RM showed the pull and twist method, keeping the root intact was to show every feature that is used to ID fungi. The bag (volva) that fruit body that amantia grow out of is single main differance of that group. No group other than amantias has them. With other groups such as lepiotas the larger edible one have a bulbous root where as the smaller poisonous ones have pointy root. So knowing what the root looks like is important. You dont damage the mycelium in any imporant way by picking a mushroom, remember that mushrooms are evovled to be eaten by badgers and squirrels.

With experiance you can pretty much know what you are looking before you pick it so taking the root is a piontless way of adding alot of soil to your basket. The soil from poisonous mushrooms does not contaminate other fungi. The reason it is good practice to keep the dodgy speciums seperate is that small amounts of the flesh break off and will taint your other wise good meal. I can think only some amantias where this type of cross contamiation could kill. You cant poison your self by touching a mushroom.

IMHO no fungi should be cut with knife. I used to a knife and scalpel until one day I managed to poison myself picking little brown mushrooms with scalpel. In brillant display of clumsyness I slipped down a muddy bank while stabbing about 10 small purple staining mushies right into my hand. I picked the dirt and fungi out of the cut while I was still compus mentus. I then sat down for while looking at the sky. I use secatuers now, and dont bother picking LBMs.

The fungi Gordon poisoned him self with is now called Agaricus porphyrrhizon. it looks like and normal field mushroom but it smaller has purple hue to it and stains yellow, which are both features which are normally avoided if you wish try eating an unknown mushroom. There is other very closly related fungi that are eaten though. If I found this fungi I would proberly try eating it in small amount and avoid alcohol.