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Somewhere I read that if a mushroom has white gills then it could be poisonous, and that brown gills are safe to eat. Not that I'm going to pick mushrooms, but

by madengr 11y ago

Somewhere I read that if a mushroom has white gills then it could be poisonous, and that brown gills are safe to eat. Not that I'm going to pick mushrooms, but is that advice sound?

ShroomMan 11y ago
Absolutely not
maxerickson 11y ago
I did a couple minutes of looking to find a poisonous mushroom with brown gills: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerina_marginata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerina_marginata Such simplistic rules are a bad idea when foraging. Before you eat anything, positively identify it.
mordechai9000 11y ago
Not at all. The bit about white gills is probably referring to Amanitaceae, which include some marvelously toxic species that destroy the human liver. But the advice is way too general to be useful. Brown-gilled species are not universally edible, and white-gilled species are not universally poisonous. To forage safely for plants or mushrooms, you should know the identifying characteristics of your target species and any non-edible lookalikes. There are definitely no general rules for determining mushroom edibility. A great resource is Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora.
pluteoid 11y ago
There are no simple rules like that which can reliably differentiate edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. The best way to start foraging is by learning some relatively unmistakeable edible species and only picking those.
pyrophane 11y ago
No. The deadly webcap is an example of a poisonous mushroom that had brown gills. It can be found in northern Europe. Further, there is a broad category of difficult to identify mushrooms referred to as "little brown mushrooms" that includes poisonous brown filled species. The notion that brown gilled mushrooms are safe whereas white gilled mushrooms are not sounds like region-specific folk knowledge, and given the way mushroom species migrate and the existence of relatively rare mushrooms, I wouldn't count on it to be reliable anywhere in the world. Positive identification is the only safe way to select edible mushrooms, and as this article points out even that bears the risk of false identification, particularly if you aren't fully aware of what other similar species to check for.

by madengr 11y ago

Somewhere I read that if a mushroom has white gills then it could be poisonous, and that brown gills are safe to eat. Not that I'm going to pick mushrooms, but is that advice sound?

ShroomMan 11y ago

Absolutely not

maxerickson 11y ago

I did a couple minutes of looking to find a poisonous mushroom with brown gills: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerina_marginata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerina_marginata Such simplistic rules are a bad idea when foraging. Before you eat anything, positively identify it.

mordechai9000 11y ago

Not at all. The bit about white gills is probably referring to Amanitaceae, which include some marvelously toxic species that destroy the human liver. But the advice is way too general to be useful. Brown-gilled species are not universally edible, and white-gilled species are not universally poisonous. To forage safely for plants or mushrooms, you should know the identifying characteristics of your target species and any non-edible lookalikes. There are definitely no general rules for determining mushroom edibility. A great resource is Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora.

pluteoid 11y ago

There are no simple rules like that which can reliably differentiate edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. The best way to start foraging is by learning some relatively unmistakeable edible species and only picking those.

pyrophane 11y ago

No. The deadly webcap is an example of a poisonous mushroom that had brown gills. It can be found in northern Europe. Further, there is a broad category of difficult to identify mushrooms referred to as "little brown mushrooms" that includes poisonous brown filled species. The notion that brown gilled mushrooms are safe whereas white gilled mushrooms are not sounds like region-specific folk knowledge, and given the way mushroom species migrate and the existence of relatively rare mushrooms, I wouldn't count on it to be reliable anywhere in the world. Positive identification is the only safe way to select edible mushrooms, and as this article points out even that bears the risk of false identification, particularly if you aren't fully aware of what other similar species to check for.