Topic: Safe identification of mushrooms

[Invisible Mike]

Hi

No not an eater sadly. Most of the polypores, although not generally poisonous are usually too tough to eat. The word winter is a bit of a red herring. It does fruit through winter but will continue until late spring, likewise winter chanterelles can start during early autumn... Fungi know no seasonal boundaries, they grow when conditions are right!

Nevermind keep posting your finds...

PS Normal chanterelles (girolles) are doing well all over the place at the moment I've noticed, so if you're in your local woods keep your eyes on the ground for little "golden nuggets" growing amongst the moss...

[Sverige]

Thanks Mike. A few more sprouting in the garden. Some look the same as before but some might be edible?

[Invisible Mike]

Very hard to tell. 1,2 and 4 look like they could belong to the lactarius family. If you slash the gills with a sharp knife they should exude a latex or "milk" - (hence the name lactarius.)

The 3rd one down is intriguing but as always I'd need to see the underside.

What type, if any trees are present in the vicinity?

[Sverige]

Thanks Mike. Doesn't matter if you can't ID them, it's just curiosity on my part really.

Mainly evergreens around here, but silver birch is quite prevalent too.

Few more pics of the underside of the intruiging no.3, along with the slashed gills from the first one, which do not appear to exude latex.

[Invisible Mike]

I think the top one is a webcap (of some sort) you can tell by the way the edge of the unopened cap is joined to the stem by a web-like membrane. The genus is cortinarius from the Latin word cortina meaning "veil" (not the 1980s Ford saloon car!)  They are mostly poisonous or "suspect". Some are deadly!

Non of these really strike me as common edibles that I'm familiar with.

Daft question but are you actually in Sweden, if so where?

[Sverige]

Ok, I'd best wash my fingers then,  because I pulled that first one out of the ground to photo it!  Yes, in Sweden, about an hour west of Stockholm. Might be a different selection of mushies here to what you're used to! 

Thanks for your advice, I think I'll not cut any up and fry up with bacon and eggs.

[Invisible Mike]

No they all the same species there are just so many of them to be able to identify them all.

The reason I ask is because these guys http://www.getfunghi.co.uk/ are coming up on my Twitter feed a lot lately. They are running guided forays on the island of Orust. 400SEK pp inc a mushroom fry up lunch.

I think this was the place I saw Jamie Oliver picking chanterelles on his Sweden program - just last night in fact! Would be a great opportunity to get you going as a beginner.

[Sverige]

Looks interesting indeed, quite a way from me though (over 4 hours drive). If it were down the road I'd go for it

[Invisible Mike]

That's a shame. I wonder if there's any other guides nearer.... The only other thing to do is head to the pine or mixed forests and look for chanterelles/girolles. They seem to be quite common in Sweden, easy to spot and easy to identify. Lots of them about at the moment there too!

[Sverige]

Thanks Mike, I'll google those names and get an idea what to look for. The forest is adjoining my garden, so not far to walk!