mushrooms in wnc - Asheville Botanical Gardens

Edible Mushrooms of WNC
Today’s Agenda
• How and where to find mushrooms
• Mushroom identification criteria
• Edible mushrooms in WNC
Sheila Dunn
Blue Ridge Naturalist Student, Master Gardener
– Spring
– Summer
– Fall
– Winter
Asheville Mushroom Club
What is a
Mushroom?
• Mushrooms are
the fruiting
bodies of
certain fungi the apple, not
the tree.
• Classified in the
Fungi
Kingdom
Mycelium
• Spores form hyphae, which in
turn form long chains called
“mycelium”
• When conditions are "just so"mycelium generate new
hyphae which, within several
weeks, will develop into a
mushroom
• What are these conditions?
How Mushrooms Reproduce
•How are spores spread?
Where to Get Mushrooms
• Grow them (inoculate logs or other
substrates)
• Go on a foray
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Where and When to Look
• Don’t’ foray along busy
roadsides or in polluted
areas (for edible
mushrooms)
• Watch out: national forests
might prohibit
• In WNC, March through
November
• 1-3 days after rain
Edible Wild Mushrooms
Some mushrooms
haven't even been
named yet!
• Over 10,000 mushroom
species in the US
• About 250 are edible
• Some mushrooms are
difficult to identify
correctly, requiring
years of experience,
many reference books
and sometimes
microscopic analysis
Nutritional
Value
• Less than 25 calories/cup
• High protein (have all essential amino
acids)
• Good source of B vitamins, essential
minerals (esp. selenium)
• Low fat; low carb; high fiber
• Only source of vitamin D (if exposed to
sun) besides cod liver oil
Foraying
• Basket and knife
• Waxed paper
bags or little
paper bags. Why
not plastic?
• Collect the entire
mushroom,
including any
underground
parts
Before Eating Mushrooms
•Use 2-3 good field guides
•If in doubt, ID by an expert
•Don’t rely on color alone
• If in doubt, throw it out!
• Many popular edibles can cause
indigestion or allergic reactions in a
few susceptible individuals. When
trying a species for the first time, eat
just a little.
• Don’t consume any mushroom in very
large quantities or raw.
Types of
Mushrooms
• What does a typical
mushroom look like?
• Some mushrooms look like
balls; marine coral; cups or
saucers; shelf-like growths
on trees, logs or stumps;
sponges; or even
cauliflower.
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How Mushrooms are
Categorized
• Most mushrooms are Basidiomycetes.
Specialized cells called basidia produce
spores (basidiospores)
• Some mushrooms (e.g., morels and cup
fungi) are Ascomycetes; they produce
spores differently, within tube-like cells
called asci
Gilled Mushrooms: Agarics
Types of Mushrooms
• Gilled mushrooms (Agarics). Vertical gills house
spores, which then drop.
• Mushrooms with pores (Boletes & Polypores).
Tightly packed vertical tubes under cap house spores.
• Tooth mushrooms. Outside of spines that hang
down under the cap drop spores.
• Puffballs (Gasteromycetes). Spores inside the
fruiting body dispersed only when outer skin dries and
splits open.
• Flask fungi (Ascomycetes). Spores develop inside
cells (asci) on the surface of the mushroom and are
shot out when ripe. Morels and Lobster mushrooms
are examples.
• Miscellaneous jellies and corals. No distinct cap;
spores on all sides of lobes or branches.
Mushrooms with Pores: Boletes
Includes:
• Agaricus (grocery
store mushroom)
• Amanita (most
poisonous)
• Oyster mushrooms
• Shiitake (not native,
must grow)
• Blewits (wonderful
winter mushrooms)
Mushrooms with Pores: Edible
Polypores
Examples:
• Chicken of the Woods
• Hen of the Woods (also
medicinal)
Mushrooms with Pores: Medicinal
Polypores
Examples:
• Reishi
•Maitake
•Turkey tails
3
Tooth Mushrooms: Hedgehogs
and Lion’s Mane
Puffballs
Example
• Hedgehog
• Lion’s Mane
Ascomycetes: Morels and Lobsters
Preliminary Mushroom ID
• Note the season
• Note where
shroom was
growing: on a
tree? on moss? in
leaf litter?
• Note the size,
color
• Look under the
cap for gills, pores,
teeth
• Spore print
How Many Different Types of
Mushrooms are in This Picture?
Identification Keys in Books
• Most shroomers have at least 5 ID
books (See Mushroom Resources
Handout)
• Most keys start with shape
– Cap and stem
• Today, we’ll focus on preliminary
identification of edible mushrooms
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Mushroom ID
Step 1. Look Under The Cap
• Gills- Agaricales, such as Amanita
and Agaricus (grocery store
mushroom)
• Pores – Boletes
• Crevices - Chanterelles
• Teeth – Hydnum
and Herecium
Types of Gills
Widely Spaced
Giving off milky
liquid
Slice into Gills with Fingernail
• Why? If milky liquid is produced, your
mushroom falls into the “Lactarius”
genera, and 4 of them are good
edibles!
Closely Spaced
Crowded
How Gills are Attached to the Stem
Look Under the Cap: Pores
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Some Boletes Stain When Touched
Identifying Boletes
• Pore color
• Bluing when bruised
• Stem
– Reticulated
– Dotted
Look Under the Cap: Crevices,
Not Gills, Not Pores, Not Teeth
Chanterelle
Cinnabar chanterelle
Mushroom ID Step 2
• Now that you know what is under the
cap: gills, pores, crevices, teeth
• Look at the shape of the cap (pileus)
Look Under the Cap: Teeth
Herecium Lions Mane
Hedgehogs
Step 3: Look For a Veil
• Is there a ring of tissue (annulus)
on the upper stalk?
• Is there a cup-like sac (volva)
around the very base of the stalk?
– Feature of the Death Cap (Amanita
phalloides) and Destroying Angel (Amanita
virosa) mushrooms.)
• Are there warts on the cap?
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Rings (Annulus)
on Stem
More Evidence of a Veil: Volva
• Tissue around entire button
• Ruptured by the growing
mushroom
• May leave warts/patches on
cap
• E.g., amanita
Annulus:
Evidence of
a partial veil
Patches or Warts on Cap: Veil
• Shreds,
patches or
warty material
on the stalk,
cap, or
hanging from
the cap
margin.
Step 4. Determine the Spore Print:
Color Helps Identify
Examine Cap for Warts: Amanitas
Can Be Deadly -Do Not Eat!!
Getting a Spore Print
• Cut off and discard the stem if the
mushroom has one. Place the cap on
heavy white or black paper with the
gills or pores (or other spore-producing
surface) facing downward
• Cover with a bowl or cup to block air
currents, and leave 6 hours to
overnight.
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Getting a Spore Print
Spore Print Color? Guess……
Mushroom Poisoning
2% of all mushrooms;
most not fatal
• Some types of toxins:
1. Protoplasmic
(Amatoxins)– cell
destruction followed
by organ failure
2. Neurotoxins
(Psilocybin)–
sweating, coma,
convulsions,
hallucination
Hunt for the Best Edibles By
Season: Spring
•
Amanita virosa
Destroying Angel
• Morels, and only Morels
• Start hunting on St. Patrick’s day
(depending on weather) and stop in
late April (depending on weather)
• Genus Morchella
• May be from 3-20 species
Amanita phalloides
Death Cap
Best Early Spring
Edible: Morels
Morels: Morchella sp.
• Look under poplar trees, oaks and ashes
• Often areas that have been burned; old
apple orchards
• Hollow stem- always cut lengthwise
• Spore print – cream color
– M. elata – Black Morel
– M. esculanta – Yellow Morel
– M. deliciosus – White Morel
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Poisonous Look-alike:
False Morels / Gyromitra
Do NOT eat!
Solid (not hollow)
Best Edibles: Summer
Chanterelle
• Chanterelles
• Horn of Plenty (Black
Trumpets)
• Lactarius (some)
• Chicken of the Woods AKA Sulfur Shelf (late)
• Lobster (late)
• Wine caps
• Honey mushrooms
Poisonous Look-alike:
Jack O’ Lantern!
Chanterelles
Cantharellus cibarius
Chanterelle- no true gills
• Late June
through fall
• On forest floor
• Grow singly
Jack O’ Lantern- true gills
Glows in the dark
Grows in clusters on tree base
Black
Trumpet
Craterellus
fallax
•Common but hard to
spot
•On banks next to
trails, often in groups
•Thin, brittle flesh
Edible Lactarius
L. volemus
Apricot Milk Cap
fishy smell, milk
stains fingers
L. corrugis
L. indigo
L. hygrophoroides
9
Chicken of Woods
Laetiporus sulphureus
Beware: Non-Edible Lactarius!
• Lactarius piperatus
• Lactarius deliciosus
• Both are peppery
hot
• What do all
lactarius have in
common?
On oak, conifers, others. Cut and come again!
Stropharia rugoso-annulata
Wine Cap
Lobster Mushroom
Hypomyces lactifluorum
Find under pines and hemlocks
● Dirty but excellent eating!
●
Armillaria mellea
Honey mushroom
•
•
•
•
Find in wood chips and bark mulch
Purple-grey to blackish spore print
Ring on stem
Can get huge. Often buggy.
Other Common
Summer Edibles
• Russula virescens
(green quilt russula)
– Stem like chalk
– Radial lines on cap
• Late summer
• Clusters at base of
dying hardwoods
• Scaly cap, tough
stems with ring
• White spores
• Coprinus comatus
Shaggy mane; Inky
cap
– Grows in grass
– White gills dissolve
into inky mess
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Agaricus campestris:
Grocery Store
Mushroom
Best Fall Mushrooms
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Agaricus campestrus
Hen of the woods
Oyster mushrooms
Puffballs
Hydnum
Cauliflower mushroom
Herecium
Blewits
Fall
Agaricus
campestris
•
•
•
•
Location: grassy areas
Cap white, may darken with age
Fragile ring attached to stalk
Gills start pink (never white), turning
chocolate brown
• Pleasant “mushroomy” smell
• Poisonous (not deadly) look-alikes:
– Stain yellow when base of stalk is cut
– Inky or metallic odor
Edible
Grifola frondosa
Maitake
Hen of the Woods
• Late summer and fall
• Grows at the base of oak trees or stumps, in large
(sometimes huge) clusters of overlapping fan-shaped
caps
• Caps are roughly zoned in gray to ochre-brown to
dark-brown colors, with a white pore-surface
• Stout white, many-branched stalks
• Flesh white and firm
• Good edible when young and fresh; Good medicinal
Oyster Mushroom
Pleurotus ostreatus
Puffballs
Calvatia gigantea
•
•
•
•
Meadow mushroom
Lycoperdon perlatum
Gem-studded puffball
In woody debris
1-3 in, spiny
Found on dead hardwoods
Often eccentric stem
White spore print
Lookalikes: harder and bitter, OR
brown spore print
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Hydnum repandum
Hedgehog
Cauliflower
Mushroom
Sparassis spathulata;
S. crispa; S. herbstii
•
•
•
•
Late summer
on forest floor
Hericium
Find at bases of hardwoods or conifers
Whitish to yellowish
White spores
Sea sponge, brain,
cauliflower
Clitocybe nuda: Blewits
• After first frost
• White spore print
• Always do a spore print!
H. Erinaceus
Lion's mane
H. Coralloides
Rare in WNC
• Drooping spines from central core
• Hardwoods. Often high up on beech trees
• Excellent edible; medicinal (anti-dementia)
Poisonous Look –
alike: Cortinarius
Name that Mushroom
• Note the cobwebby veil
and more bulbous
base. Do not eat.
• Rust color spore print.
• Always make a spore
print!
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