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Fascinating Fungi

goldscapes

goldscapes

Member
Joined
21 Aug 2018
Messages
239
Location
Surrey
I might have got this wrong but something tells me there are some fungi hunters amongst the UKAPS members. And seeing as, in the UK at least, it’s most definitely fungi season, I thought I’d share a few of pics of recent finds to see if anyone else had similar to share.

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Only one of these mushrooms is edible and it's... amanita muscaria at the top. Tadaaaa!
But it can be consumed ONLY after 15 mins or so of boiling in water and then discarding/putting aside the stock - which when drunk gives hallucinogenic dream-like sensations.
Amanita muscaria (after boiling it like above) is very tasty when marinated, I also like it as addition to the soups.

The other ones are (if I'm seeing them right):
2. Strobilurus trullisatus (fire-cone mushroom)
3. Conocybe apala (milky conecap)
4. Hypholoma fasciculare aka sulphur tuft (assuming there is no ring underneath the cap and I can't see the gills) - be aware of this one if you forage mushrooms as it can be easily mistaken with edible (after few mins of cooking) and very tasty honey mushroom (Armillaria species in general). While sulphur tuft is not deadly (although some sources say of kidney failure), it gives very bad gastric sensations after eating it - diarrhea and vomiting being most common ones. And it's very bitter in taste generally.
 
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ian_m said:
Me out yesterday, in the woods near my house.
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I should move to Eastleigh, can you adopt me? ;)

Looks you have abundance of honey mushrooms there - at least this is what it looks like on 1st (it could be also undeveloped Pholiota squarrosa, known as the shaggy scalycap), 3rd and 5th img - not 100% sure without seeing gills, collars, smelling etc. and honey mushrooms are very very variable like... anubias or buces.
On the 2nd img it's a sulphur tuft and on the 4th one I can see a real treat - Macrolepiota procera or the parasol mushroom (young ones can be mistaken with Shaggy parasol /Chlorophyllum rhacodes which can give some gastric sensations to some people - although not very common).
alnitak said:
Blushing amanita, or rubescens, so tasty and seldom collected because of the terrible mix up that can be made with amanita pantherina...
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I find blushers as ones of the most underrated mushrooms when it comes to foraging etc. - they are very very tasty, especially the ones at early stage of growth. Fortunately pantherinas which are quite similar are not the deadly ones, in fact they are just contain much more ibotenic acid and muscimol than amanita muscaria (fly agaric) so when eaten can lead to some unsuspected hallucinogenic sensations. And their taste is rather unpleasant (mixture of raw potatoes with kind of untasty radish). Also blushers are quite easy to tell from the panterinas - when scratched, broken etc they just blush to reddish colour after an hour or so while pantherinas usually stay white-ish. Apart from that blushers have some kind of smooth bulb at the bottom of the stipe, while pantherinas bulb forms some kind of socket.

Ghettofarmulous said:
I’m enjoying this at the moment. I recommend
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Thanks for another one to go on my list, and this is one of my favorites so far:

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But enough for theory, this is what I've found some time ago:

This tiny beauty - tremella mesenterica known commonly as a Witches' butter

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Clathrus archeri known as devil's finger - it smells absolutely "fantastic" - literally like rotten meat which attracts lots of flies - they very likely spread its spores around the area and it's yet another wonder of nature to me.

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Ehcosbie said:
Just found this growing in a pot in the garden. Any ideas?
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PARAGUAY said:
Think @Witcher #9 shows something like it.
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They are both of the same genus (Clathrus) - the one which grows in Ehcosbie's garden (lucky you!) is Clathrus Ruber (called latticed stinkhorn or the red cage) - when fully matured it stinks like the most of Clathrus fungi. They are edible when in egg stage and as Wikipedia says: " they are even considered delicacies in some parts of Europe and Asia, where they are pickled raw and sold in markets as "devil's eggs."
 
Witcher said:
They are both of the same genus (Clathrus) - the one which grows in Ehcosbie's garden (lucky you!) is Clathrus Ruber (called latticed stinkhorn or the red cage) - when fully matured it stinks like the most of Clathrus fungi. They are edible when in egg stage and as Wikipedia says: " they are even considered delicacies in some parts of Europe and Asia, where they are pickled raw and sold in markets as "devil's eggs."
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Fascinating stuff. I lost my sense of smell years ago so cannot comment on the smell of the Clathrus. We do get one or two in the garden each year, but this is the first to pop up in a pot.

Thank you for identifying guys, much appreciated.
 
Ehcosbie said:
Found these guys growing in my leaf mould bin. Anyone know what they are?
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These are most likely Paralepista flaccida/Clitocybe flaccida (Tawny funnel cap) - it's tricky to tell for 100% without seeing gills and spore print as Lepista/Clitocybe species are very variable and often similar to each other within the genus.
Some sources say it's edible but other sources say that it contains muscarine (and many Lepista and Clitocybe mushrooms contain lots of it and they are very toxic) so I wouldn't risk eating it.
What's interesting that also Boletus, Russula and Lactarius fungi (so generally one of the most sought for when it comes to wild food) contain muscarine but in really low amounts so not dangerous at all.
 
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