Poisonous mushrooms

[taws6]

Hi,

And Happy New Year!!

A friend recently told me that there only several poisonous species of mushroom, and if I learn which ones these are, I can safely eat everything else. Is this true? If so, where can I find a list of the poisonous ones??

Many thanks,

And have a Happy New Year!!!!

 

[Shewie]

Probably not the best advice to be given in my opinion.

Get yourself a good field guide and it should have three or four methods you can use to ID fungi. I wouldn`t eat anything unless it`s plainly obvious what it is and you are 100% sure that you`ve ID`d it correctly.
You can always put some photos up on here as there are a couple of people who really know what they`re talking about, and I`m not one of them.

Have a search for fungi ID and there should be loads to get you started.

 

[robin wood]

very bad advice in my opinion. I would strongly advise never eat any fungi that you are not 100% sure of your identification.

The best way to start is get a field guide and start identifying all that you come across. Once you can follow the key and be sure of your IDs then try eating some.

Apart from there being a lot more than "several" poisonous species there are a great many that are "inedible" that is won't kill you but taste bad or are like chewing sawdust, you really don't want to eat those.

 

[Matthew.Passmore]

There are many species of toxic mushrooms, several of which can kill, as robin said you should never eat anything that you are not 100% sure with.

"Mushrooms" by Rodger Phillips is a good book.

 

[WoodWildling]

risky business collecting mushrooms!! look at that recent case of the lady who died, because her friend mis-identified some mushrooms she picked at a botanical garden.
If ur not sure do not eat!!
the collins guide is quite good but only has pics not good drawings

Wild

 

[brancho]

Thats bad advice and great care is needed as ID can be very difficult and for instance some have a bad effect when you drink alcohol after/while eating them.

 

[durulz]

The advice is both more-or-less correct, but also extremely bad.
It is true that the vast majority of fungi are edible, and that only a few are poisonous.
HOWEVER.
The poisonous ones REALLY are quite poisonous. It's not just a case of a mad dash to the loo - if you eat the wrong one you can very easily die! And that, for any sane person, is too much of a risk.
As everyone else has said - if you aren't 100% positive (and merely saying, 'it looks like the one in the picture' ISN'T 100% positive) then do not eat. It's not worth it.

 

[xylaria]

Here is a list of the known killers

There is at least another 200 that I can think of that cause illness.

Your mate is a muppet, and if he follows his own advice you will need a black tie and dark suit. All the other replys have come up with some very sound advice. Get a good book, and id everything you come across, go on forays, after a while differances between the various family groups will become more obvious. It is only when your at the point where you can ID a species 100% and be utterly sure what family it from, it is then safe to collect for the pot. It can take some years of practice to get to that stage.

 

[Arvensis]

As the linked list shows, there are more than 'several' fungi which can cause fatal poisoning and as Xylaria mentions there are hundreds more which are capable of causing illness.

There are others which are more or less inedible due to various factors such as bitter tasting and too tough to eat.

As the others have said always be 100% sure of what species you have is actually edible - 99% sure could be fatal. Buy 2 or 3 guides and in addtion to learning which ones are edible, learn about the deadly fungi too.

When it does come down to the point of collecting for the pot, it's worth not eating too much of a species that you haven't consumed before. The reasoning behind this is the fungi may 'disagree' with your stomach.

Mark

 

[atross]

Don't Eat This one

or This One

 

[taws6]

Thanks for the conclusive replys.

I guessed it would proberably be rubbish advise, hearing there are 200 odd other spieces that will cause illness clarifiys things.

I will tell him the errors of his advise.

BTW, the last mushroom pic posted, flygaric? (sp?)
Dont even need to eat it to feel it's effects, it's 'poision' soaked into the skin on my fingers and wow, NEVER eat them!!

 

[atross]

BTW, the last mushroom pic posted, flygaric? (sp?)
Dont even need to eat it to feel it's effects, it's 'poision' soaked into the skin on my fingers and wow, NEVER eat them!!

It is, I have also had interesting advice about this one, was once told that if I got a reindeer to eat one then drink it's pee I would be high as a kite!

Top one is a death cap, which is nasty stuff! But apparently tastes nice, but will kill you once you have eaten it!

I would recommend the field guide advice, as well as get yourself on some forays! I went on one with John Wright held by bushcraft expeditions, it was a great couple of days where I learnt a lot

http://www.bushcraftexpeditions.com/workshop.php#4

What was interesting was talking to John, who was confident in Id'ing 800 types of fungi, which is impressive, he then goes on to explain that there are 4000 plus in the UK.

On the edible front there is a range
Good to eat
Edible but not worth it
Not Known
Toxic
Will kill you and if you eat it you are screwed

That's what makes it fun, I will eat what I am confident about, my wife refuses to eat what I collect so that she can tell the paramedics what I thought I had eaten

 

[taws6]

Ha ha......LOL I'd have to be high as a kite to drink reindeer pee!!!

 

[xylaria]

Fly agaric isn't really that poisonous. It is the mushroom that anyone that walks in woods can spot as a toadstool, so is one that children are told not to touch. You can touch any european mushroom without fear of any form of poisoning. Fly agaric allegedly can be eaten as food if boiled three times in salt water, I am yet to find anyone stupid enough to try eating as food, i am certainly not going to try it.

It is the wrong time of year to start going on forays, but quite a few local wildlife trusts have fungi groups and run free forays during the autumn. The website wild about britian has mass of info on various groups around the country including their own. Some old school amateur mycologists can have simerlar attitude to picking for the pot as twitchers can have about bird shooters. I strongly advise that all groups of fungi are learned not just the eaters that is why I feel proper forays are the right way to start.

 

[mariobab]

Fly agaric (Amanita Muscaria) is extremely rare deat poisonous,not more than few deaths are recorded ever.Level of toxins vary from region to region,and from season to season,so some old books do mention that mushroom was commonly eaten in some part of Italy,after cap skin was peeled and mushroom than boiled in water or in milk.Anyway it may be really hallucinogenic,as my mother told me when she was young one neighbor had poisoned himself with one,and was in delirium,so they gave him to drink urine to vomit (it was in 50',and no doctor was nearer less than 20 km).
But as said the best way to be sure is to learn mushrooms well,and stick to species we know good,and learn one new at the time.

 

[dangerpie]

I went on a great activity day once where we were all set loose around an area with a handy guide book on what mushrooms where edible, not tasty, and poisonous. After a couple hours of foraging you would all come back to base with what you collected and there would be some experts on hand to check that you hadn't made any mistakes. Then you gave them to a mushroom-bbq-chef who would cook them up on the bbq and you could taste what you found.

A really fun day and a safe way to try out some wild mushrooms. A good place to start perhaps?

Pete