Mushrooms, Toxic and Edible

TODAY I am writing about mushrooms. I want to supply people lists and facts on both edible and inedible, poisonous and beneficial, mushrooms.

First, I will talk about the bad stuff. :)

Poisonous and Harmful Mushrooms

Okay, so this segment is about the abominable mushrooms, the accursed. Firstly, I will supply a list, along will fact files, about these monstrous mushrooms:

• Toadstools: Toadstools, widely known for their red-capped-with-white-spots appearance, are not, in fact, mushrooms. They are highly poisonous, which could be warned by their bright coloring. Its spore color is ruddy, almost orange, shade of brown.

• Green-spored Lepiota: The cap is a creamy, yellowish white color and is usually fairly flat, more or less. Their stems are normally darker, and more yellow with a fleshy ring around it, close to the cap. It is about three to ten inches in height and half an inch in width. As its name suggests, it has green spores, although you won’t be able to tell this from its fair gills. The only way you can test this is by making a spore print. It is highly poisonous, and you will start experiencing the symptoms about half an hour or one and a half hours after eating it. These include abnormal cramping, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Suffering can last as long as two days.

• Death Cap Mushroom : The death cap mushroom can be identified by the remnants of a sack near its gills and at its base. They have dull white stems and more or less darker caps. This mushroom is responsible for the most poisonings in the world. This is probably because it looks so much alike to many edible mushrooms; the brownish cap and dirty white steam. It likes to collaborate with deciduous trees, particularly silver  birch and oak. When you consume it, it poisons you kidneys and liver. Its spore color is a chocolate brown.

How to Make a Mushroom Spore Print

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to make a mushroom spore print. I have listed the spore color of all of the mushrooms, and an online search can also tell you the spore color of poisonous and edible mushrooms. I hope that this helps.

1) Take a fresh mushroom cap.

2) Press it, gill-side down, onto a light and dark piece of paper.

3) Cover the cap with a bowl or jar as that wind currents don’t disturb the spore print.

4) Leave it to set over night.

5) Lift the bowl or jar off of the mushroom cap and carefully remove the mushroom cap.

6) Presto! You have made your very own mushroom print! What color is it?

Edible and Beneficial Mushrooms

So now that you know a bit more about the harmful mushrooms, let’s discus the edible ones. These delectable fungi are loved and enjoyed in a great diversity of dishes, from soups to casseroles, by people around the world. Just as I have done with the inedible mushrooms above, I have made a list (along with some facts and spore colors and such) of some delicious, edible mushrooms:

• Blue Foot : The blue foot, also known as the blewit, has a awe inspiringly and shockingly violet or blue hued stem and cap. This beautiful and vibrant tinge of color tends to fade over time. This delicious mushroom has an earthly flavor and must never be eaten raw. It is commonly mistaken for its deadly cousin, the silver violet cortinarius. One of the only differences between the two mushrooms is the spore color. This silver violet cortinarius has brown spores, while the blue foot has pink.

• Pom-Poms : Also lions mane mushroom, the pom-pom has a shaggy, almost furry  white cap. It is indeed edible, and is widely enjoyed steamed, boiled, roasted, stewed, or fried. They have a strangely, unexpected meaty taste and can be used as substitutes for meat. This mushroom adduces no steam. The pom-pom has white spore prints, so if you are trying to make a pom-pom spore stamp, I suggest using a dark piece of paper.

• Shiitake : The shiitake mushroom is a wide-capped mushroom that usually grows out from tree bark, particularly dead Asian oak and beeches. It has a brown cap and a white steam and gills. This mushroom has a rich, buttery, meaty flavor. When dried, this flavor changes into a smokey taste. The shiitake, like the pom-pom, has white spores.

More About Mushroom Spores

So, what is a spore? you might be wondering. A spore is like a fungi’s seed. In mushrooms, it is located in the gills. This is why the gills are pressed downwards to reveal the color of the spore print. This can be any shade orange, pink, brown, green, white, and that is just to name a few.

When the mushroom releases its spores, the dust-like ‘seeds’ may either land around it or blow away and find some other place to land. Where a spore lands, a mushroom will grow.

More on Mushrooms

Edible mushrooms are often a wonderful substitute for meat and make wonderful and delicious dishes in many different presentations. These fungi are a wonderful and healthy treat that I, personally, have grown to love. You should try them! But be sure to get them store-bought, and not from the wild. Appearances of deadly and tasty mushrooms can be frighteningly alike.

~Thank You and Farewell~

Thank you for reading this post, and for viewing my blog. I think that I will do another factual post on a type of fungi some other time, sometime soon. I hope that you have enjoyed Mushrooms, Toxic and Edible and that you will find as much happiness reading my posts as I find when writing them. So, farewell, my friends. I will see you soon.

-KittyLover8

© 2012