Today I received two requests to identify mushrooms. One was based on a photo and the other on the real thing. The photo looked to me like a large batch of mature honey mushrooms growing on wood, but based on a photo I’d never say for certain that’s what they are. Better confirm the ID. One helpful way is to take a spore print. If I thought they were honey mushrooms, I would cut the caps off a couple of them, lay the caps gill-side down on paper that has both black and white sections, cover the caps with a bowl and leave them overnight. I wouldn’t use plain white paper because honey mushrooms have white spores. The point is that a picture only tells part of the story. You want to be able to see all aspects of the mushroom. Does it smell? What happens if you slice it or bruise it? Does it stain? If you break a piece off, does it release a milky substance? If there are gills, do they connect to the stem?

If you’re planning on collecting mushrooms for the table (I’ve mentioned here before that I’m not recommending that you do that), you need to be 100% sure of your ID because if you make a mistake you can become very sick. Some Ontario mushrooms can kill you. You don’t get a second chance.

The reason I bring this up is that I’ve had many searches about Ontario edible mushrooms land on this blog recently. It’s been my experience that mushroom pickers show up in our forests in droves in the fall. I’ve met some people out in the woods who have very little idea what they’re picking. These people are reckless gamblers with misguided mushroom fever. Here are some samples of the recent searches:

edible mushrooms of ontario
edible mushrooms in southern ontario
where to pick up wild edible mushroom in toronto
types of mushrooms found in canada
field mushrooms in ontario
giant puffball ontario
ontario wild mushrooms
can i eat puffball mushrooms in ontario

There are more. I’ve mentioned before that my favourite is: Map for King Boletes near Toronto.

By contrast, the other request comes from a friend who is going to drop off some samples for me to look at. There are still no guarantees I can identify them, even with a good field guide to help me, but I have a much better chance of success if I have them in my hands. My friend thinks they are a kind of mushroom that I happen to know very well, and I’m confident I’ll at least be able to declare if she is correct. If she’s wrong, that’s another story. I’ll have to see them.

Each year I try to add a species or two to my list of mushrooms I can identify with confidence. I’m nowhere near as good at this as my brother Salvelinas, and there are mushroom hounds around who are able to identify many more mushrooms than either of us combined. It takes a lot of study and field experience. The way to learn is to start with one or two species and learn them very well, so you can identify them with certainty each and every time. Once you have those down, learn one more. Don’t try to learn too many at one time. The good thing is that in many places, the number of common edible species you’re going to find regularly is fairly small. The first mushrooms I learned about were chanterelles and the curiosity we call the lobster.  I recall the first hedgehog I found. I was with Salvelinas. “What the heck is this weird thing with the teeth,” I asked him. He picked it up, looked at it carefully and tossed it into his basket. The good thing is that many of the tasty edibles are very distinctive. But then again, there are lookalikes so you have to be sure….