How to Identify Wild Edible Mushrooms of the West
There are 10,000 varieties of mushrooms in North America, with about 250 varieties known to be edible. With so many varieties, the details for identification are extensive, so use a reliable resource or a wild mushroom identification field guide. The most common attractive mushrooms are either edible or toxic. Pay careful attention when identifying edible wild mushrooms; although a culinary delight, some species of mushrooms are deadly poisonous.
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Things You'll Need
- Edible mushroom field guide
- Microscope
- Magnifying glass
- Paper bags (for storing samples)
Instructions
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Learn the structure of a wild mushroom. A typical gilled mushroom consists of a cap, a stalk and gill. Mushroom gills are the reproductive part of the wild mushroom and produce the spores. The spores are single-cell reproductive units.
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2
Learn the most common groups of edible mushrooms. For example, boletes--or the Boletus genus (Boletaceae)--are the most common variety of edible mushroom. Boletes have a bitter taste, fleshy caps, a central stalk and tubular reproductive parts. Poisonous boletus mushrooms have red or orange spores.
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3
Use reference books and a microscope to identifying the mushroom genus. Carefully cross-reference your findings using various field guides, or work with someone with experience.
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4
Do not believe myths; not all mushrooms growing on wood are safe; a silver coin or spoon will not tarnish if cooked with poisonous mushrooms; and some mushroom caps that peel are toxic.
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5
Identify a mushroom by size, odor, growth, color and habitat as well as the time of year. Never identify a mushroom by simply matching it to a photo. Compare all the details of the wild mushroom with your reference guide.
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Take a spore print of your mushroom. Remove the stalk from the cap of the mushroom. Place the cap, gills-side down, on clear plastic or white paper, then cover with a bowl and leave overnight. Usually, the mushroom will release its spores for color identification.
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Examine the mushroom stalk carefully. If there is a ring of tissue (annulus) on the upper stalk or a cuplike sac (volva) around the base of the stalk, these are features of the toxic Death Cap (Amanitia phalloides) and the Destroying Angel (A. virosa) mushrooms.
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Tips & Warnings
Collect only one-quarter to one-half of the mushrooms you find. Mushrooms feed animals and need to reproduce.
Remove the entire mushroom, including roots, for unusual or unidentifiable varieties.
Use scientific names when identifying mushrooms.
Never eat an unidentified mushroom. Just because you see animals eating it does not mean it is nontoxic.
