{"id":4645,"date":"2017-11-08T16:47:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T16:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totallywilduk.co.uk\/?p=4248"},"modified":"2021-11-26T11:39:34","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T11:39:34","slug":"identifying-mushrooms-correctly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totallywilduk.co.uk\/2017\/11\/08\/identifying-mushrooms-correctly\/","title":{"rendered":"Identifying Mushrooms Correctly"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to Identify Mushrooms<\/h2>\n

Sometimes I\u2019m out on a walk, walking the same route I have most mornings with my dog, yet suddenly I catch a white glimmer under one of the hedges, I lift up a bit of the hedge and, almost like Alice discovering wonderland, I see absolutely loads of mushrooms.<\/p>\n

First thought!<\/strong> OMG, this is amazing they\u2019re so big!<\/p>\n

Second thought!<\/strong> Are they edible?<\/p>\n

Third thought!<\/strong> How on earth am I supposed to identify this mushroom from the other 10,000 species?<\/p>\n

I look in a full detailed guide to mushrooms and become bewildered with the sheer number of different types, looking at the pictures thinking \u201cit looks like that mushroom\u201d turn 10 pages \u201coh and it looks like that one\u201d another 10 pages and \u201coh wait…. it looks like that one too\u201d until I give up all hope.<\/p>\n

Through this blog, I\u2019m hoping to give you some great tips for the process of identifying mushrooms (at least down to its family before later deciding whether it\u2019s even worth identifying it out further).<\/p>\n

A foragers perspective on mushrooms is quite different from that of a mycologist; you will see mycology groups picking nearly one of every mushroom they find, looking at each in great detail, walking around with their little toolbox of tricks. However as a forager, there are quite literally thousands of mushrooms that I just don\u2019t care about, sure they make look nice but I\u2019m not even going to make the effort to bend down and take a closer look because I know it\u2019s not worth my time. The time I could spend looking harder for the really good edibles. In fact, we even have an abbreviated term for these types of mushrooms \u2013 we call them LBJ\u2019s \u2013 Little Brown Jobbies \u2013 there are thousands of them, firstly they\u2019re usually too small for bothering with and they\u2019re actually very difficult to identify without the use of a detailed microscope \u2013 and who just happens to have one of those lying around in their pockets whilst 3 hours into a walk.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve met a number of mushroom hunters (typically from Nordic countries) who have grown up picking mushrooms and therefore have the knowledge of identification engrained already. This is amazing to see and these people are fantastic to be around, however they\u2019re really difficult to learn from. For example, you stumble across a mushroom \u2013 this is a brown roll rim<\/a> \u2013 I say \u201camazing, how do you know that and what are its key features\u201d to the reply \u201cwell it just is\u201d \u2013 I\u2019d really struggle to identify this mushroom again without a serious breakdown of all of the key features I\u2019m looking for.<\/p>\n

I take a much more systematic approach to identify mushrooms now.<\/p>\n

Top tips for identifying mushrooms:<\/h2>\n
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  1. \n

    What type of environment are you in?<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What type of trees are surrounding you? Most mushrooms are associated with specific tree species whilst others are mainly found in open grassland. Understanding the environment you are in and the types of trees around you is a really important start to figuring out what mushroom you have.<\/p>\n

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      Where are the mushrooms growing?<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Is the mushroom growing from the ground, out of decaying wood, out of a living tree, out of another mushroom or is it even growing out of the head of a grub?<\/p>\n

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        What\u2019s the overall look of the mushroom?<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        When you get a little more used to mushrooms this stage can pull you to specific species straight away. Maybe the mushroom is found around the oak, actually growing off the wood of a living oak tree, it\u2019s a vibrant yellow and fairly large \u2013 fantastic you have chicken of the woods<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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          Does it leak milk when cracked?<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Some mushrooms leak a type of milk when they\u2019re cracked, these are in either the Lactarius or Mycena family and by cracking or snapping a bit of the mushroom you can tell if it does or doesn\u2019t leak milk straight away. Usually, the milk is either white or orange.<\/p>\n

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          James Lindsey at Ecology of Commanster, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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            How do the gills connect to the stem?<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            This sounds a bit odd but how the gills connect to the stem or don\u2019t connect to the stem is a really important feature for identifying mushrooms \u2013 these are given funny names \u2013 here\u2019s a good example below. To see this more easily on the mushroom you have, simply slice it in half and look at the cross-section.<\/p>\n