Sorry to butt in Simon! Mind if I have a bash? They look suspiciously like nasty amanitas to me, possibly soggy and old death caps, bit hard to tell, they look a bit scaly, I'd give em a miss. I think the bottom one looks like a grisette (not the tawny variety) but I'd leave it just in case.
Awfully ard to tell from that pic... But it doesn't look promising. Was it raining when you picked them, or had it been? Did they have a volva (egg like thing at the bottom from which they shrooms were growing?). If you put them gill side down on some dark paper or card, what colour is the spore print?
I'm guessing that they do have a spore print and that they do (or did) have a volva...
I rekon that the most likely ID is a death cap (as Nettie said). As the name implies, not edible (that's an understatement, they're the most poisonous mushrooms known)
Death caps seem to be doing okay a the moment, found some in our local woods today, never seen them there before.
Thanks you guys (&gals). I'll find something else to have for breakfast then
I did find some others that the locals definately eat. A neighbour calls them "cepe". I think they are a type of boletus? Ireally need to get myself a book. Is "Roger's mushrooms" as good as I've been told?
Treacodactyl Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 25795 Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 05 6:36 am Post subject:
The bottom right ones look like Ceps to me, Boletus edulis, the others could be Bays but the stems look a little strange to me. Does the underside bruise greeny blue?
Ceps or somethign similar, and bay boletus or something along those lines... Yeah, check the descriptions with Rogersmushrooms, which is even better than you've heard. The book is easier and faster to navigate than the website.
The ones like ceps... if the gills aren't red, you're safe, and they'll be tasty. The ones like bay boletes, what does the top look like, and do they stain an interesting colour when cut and bruised?
Can I also reccomend a copy of Richard Mabeys 'food for free'.
I read an article by a writer living in France* about hunting for mushrooms and she somehow managed to find a local version of boletus satanus (? or similar...red, and very nasty) which didn't live up to the description and which she took for a cep, with the result that she and her partner wound up having their stomachs pumped.
I'm not mentioning this to frighten you honest Simon! But just wondering if you ought to couple Roger's Mush with a local book too, would there be all that much difference between regions?
(I think it was Gem Driver who has posted on RC and possibly here)
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