How to Identify Wild Mushrooms

One of the most interesting things about hiking or walking in the woods is the ability to interact with and identify a plethora of plants and animals. Identifying different flowers, plants and species of wildlife can be a fun and educational challenge. When encountering plants that are potentially edible, such as wild mushrooms, identifying them correctly is important for your safety. Here are some tips for identifying wild mushrooms.

Instructions

1. Leave it alone if you're not sure. No matter how enticing or harmless the wild mushrooms you find may look, you run a great risk to your health if you consume them before confirming that they are edible and not poisonous. If you do not have the proper tools to identify the mushrooms or you are unsure if you are identifying them correctly, leave them alone.

2. Obtain a reliable guidebook. Good resources and guides to mushroom varieties are vital when attempting to identify mushrooms in the wild. Utilize your local library or bookstore and find a guidebook that not only gives you descriptions and information about a wide variety of mushroom species, including whether they are poisonous, but also cross-references species for you by color, size and location.

3. Consider the time of year. Wild mushrooms, like all vegetation, grow and bloom during certain seasons. Taking the local temperature, weather conditions and time of year into account helps narrow down your options when identifying potential species of wild mushroom.

4. Observe the surroundings. Certain types of mushrooms grow well in damp soil found in mostly shaded areas, while others thrive in full sunlight and drier ground conditions. Some mushrooms require a covering of leaves or ground cover to sprout, but others grow fine on their own. Observe whether the mushroom is growing out of the side of a tree or seems attached to another plant, or whether it looks like it is growing independently of any surrounding vegetation.

5. Note color, size and characteristics. While most wild mushrooms look alike to the untrained eye, there are actually distinguishing characteristics for each variety. Some feature variegated colors on their stems or splotches of color on their caps, and others have cap edges that are very soft and smooth or very sharp and defined. Jotting down these little details helps you determine exactly what kind of mushroom you have found.

6. Look for other foragers. Animals do not have the benefit of a guidebook to help them identify poisonous or harmful plants so they must rely on their intuition to stay healthy. Look for signs that other animals have eaten or harvested the mushrooms you are identifying; knowing that the mushroom is a food source for animals like raccoons or deer is another key to help you figure out what kind of mushroom you have discovered.

Resources

• Learn more about identifying wild mushrooms.
• Find a database of all the edible mushrooms that grow in North America.