6 ms·

There's a crazy amount of inertia around the 'mushroom foraging is only for experts' idea. I was just telling my mother in law this weekend that in our area the

by a2tech 5y ago

There's a crazy amount of inertia around the 'mushroom foraging is only for experts' idea. I was just telling my mother in law this weekend that in our area there are no killer mushrooms. There are mushrooms that taste very bad, and (in the worst case) will cause stomach upset (vomiting) but nothing that will kill you outright. I was trying to encourage her to try some of the more well known edible wild varieties (which as the parent comment pointed out are often very easily identified) but she wouldn't budge from the belief that if you're not an expert you'll pick a mushroom and die. People are missing out on a very enjoyable past time because of fear mongering.

JoeAltmaier 5y ago
Well, vomiting isn't very nice either. And some (many?) folks aren't crazy about mushrooms to start with. They may make apologies of the "I wouldn't know how to pick them safely" sort to avoid having to go mushrooming...
- a2tech 5y ago
  Thats undeniably true, vomiting isn't something anyone wants to do. However you're VERY unlikely to pick anything except what you're looking for if you stick to the 'biggies' of the found mushroom world as the grandparent comment covers--chicken of the wood, hen of the wood, morels, etc. They're quite distinctive and not easily confused with other things. The LBMs are a whole different kettle of fish--you're definitely into 'hard mode' when you try to differentiate those. But until you're an expert there's really no reason you'd even be looking for mushrooms in that category.
  - JoeAltmaier 5y ago
    Hm. Morels around here come in 4 colors, and some of those can resemble other toxic mushrooms that also grow around here. It can seem 'easy' to distinguish when familiar. But if you're coming at it fresh it's quite daunting. And to make your friends sick is a significant faux pas. Anyway that leaves the "I don't want to do this, and I want a 'good reason' and the death card is a good reason" cause of reluctance. It may be more common that we think.
    - anm89 5y ago
      Yeah but how hard is it to get a guidebook and figure out if Morels are a safe pick in your area. If you already know morels have look a likes where you are, then don't pick them unless you have put in the time on your own research and feel you know how to make that particular ID. Especially after I've picked something, it is really easy to move backwards and say "is there uncertainty with what this could be?".
- anm89 5y ago
  In years of eating foraged mushrooms, I have never gotten so much as a stomach ache. If you are making educated identifications (which is really easy to do with the materials available in this age) you shouldn't ever be vomiting when eating mushrooms. A very small percentage of people cannot handle most of the mushrooms that other people can and will vomit but this is true of many other food categories and is not unique to mushrooms.
  - jamal-kumar 5y ago
    You ever try and make accurate spore prints on LBMs without a microscope? We're talking the entire class of little to no culinary value little brown things. Name some tasty ones, go! Now let's bring in the 'lets get fucked up' crowd and see how much chaos can happen.
breakfastduck 5y ago
How can we be so certain there are no killer mushrooms in your area? We have no idea what is growing on a daily basis, the guidebooks were only accurate on the date of publication.
- anm89 5y ago
  This just isn't true. There aren't new mushroom species popping up in the night with any regularity. In the US we have a very good survey of what is out there. I have never heard a story of someone making a positive identification based on the resources available, then getting poisoned because they had discovered a new species which had total overlap with their positive identification. Doesn't mean it's never happened but I would say if it has it is exceedingly rare. In the same way we don't not drive because it's possible to crash, I'm not going to stop foraging because of the possibility of super outlier events.
  - breakfastduck 5y ago
    I was talking about misidentifying because there's a mushroom present that 'shouldnt' be in the area, not an entirely new species, lets not get carried away because it frustrated you. There are plenty of things people dont do because of the risk, so your argument there is complete nonsense. Sure jumping out of a plane with a parachute is going to be safe if you're confident you know what you're doing, but there's plenty of people (including myself) that wouldn't dare do it. The comment I responded to had this - "but she wouldn't budge from the belief that if you're not an expert you'll pick a mushroom and die. People are missing out on a very enjoyable past time because of fear mongering." Which is an unbelievably ignorant attitude. Comes across as "People aren't getting into X hobby I like because they're afraid, so we should peer pressure them into doing it anyway" (even though someone who is nervous is 10x more likely to make a mistake that DOES end in death or illness)
Symbiote 5y ago
Here's an example of someone (who ought to have known better) ending up near-death with kidney failure after a misidentification. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/13/filmadaptations https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/13/filmadaptation...
- alecst 5y ago
  > Nicholas - We had this family doctor came around and we knew pretty well actually what they were. I mean, we looked in the book the very next morning when Alastair started feeling ill and Charlotte was already ill. It was so clear from the photograph that what we had eaten, it wasn't a cep. It was themushroom called cortinarius speciosissimus which some people call the deadly webcap apparently. It had a rather comforting skull and cross bones underneath it, with a little caption, deadly poisonous. https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/nicholas-evans-poisonous-mistake https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/nicho... I feel bad for the guy -- really, so, so bad -- but you have to be really confused to mix up a bolete with a webcap. Webcap: https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/images/cortinariales/cortinarius-orellanus1.jpg https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/images/cortinariales/cort... Porcino: https://lovelygreens.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/cep-porcini.jpg https://lovelygreens.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/cep-porc... Porcini don't have gills! This is like mushrooms 101. Doesn't this kind of prove the rule? I feel like most of the cases of people getting sick from mushrooms are cases like this.
  - Alex3917 5y ago
    Right, of people who die from mushroom poisoning, they are almost all either immigrants eating things that look like edible mushrooms where they come from, or else children who are randomly eating things they see in their lawn. Cases like this where you have someone who has been foraging for decades and eats something deadly poisonous happen maybe once every ten years, and I suspect it's mostly people with early onset Parkinson's or something that's causing them to act impulsively. This isn't an identification mistake, there's clearly some kind of neurological issue here.
  - floatingatoll 5y ago
dfxm12 5y ago
People are missing out on a very enjoyable past time because of fear mongering. It's subjective that people would find it enjoyable. Even of all the past times one can do, there are similar ones, like birding, hiking, gardening, etc. We're not short on past times that, even in the worst case, won't even leave you vomiting.
- boring_twenties 5y ago
  Hiking is far from risk-free, there are many ways to die and people do so somewhat regularly.
  - slothtrop 5y ago
    No one needs to pick up a manual to hike.
    - boring_twenties 5y ago
      Um, yeah you do. You need to be able to, at a minimum, survive overnight in the event you get stuck up there.
      - slothtrop 5y ago
        Hiking doesn't necessarily mean going "up", let alone through highly steep paths. Walking through the woods in uneven terrain is hiking.
        boring_twenties 5y ago
        OK, I should have said "out there" instead of "up there" -- happy now? It doesn't change my point at all. What happens when you twist your ankle in those uneven woods and are unable to get out before nightfall?
        slothtrop 5y ago
radec 5y ago
Sadly I think it's fine. Where I live in the PNW there are way to many people mushroom foraging who seem to have little to no idea how to be in the woods. People rake the forest floor, people leave trash, people leave toilet paper, etc. I've actually stopped mushroom foraging in most places because the forest completely over foraged. In my experience with most outdoor activities the concept of leave no trace is completely lost on people, so unfortunately I'm fine with less people mushroom foraging.
- jamal-kumar 5y ago
  I try and explain the very easy concept of making a spore print to people and they just look at me like "wow you're really smart i don't think i could do that" ... Right after I just explained how easy it is. Reminds me of explaining password mnemonics to people sometimes. I really don't think a lot of people are prepared for taking basic safety measures and the amount of people getting poisoned in the news is high enough that I feel the alarm is warranted. I remember seeing this one photo of a girl biting an amanita species saying how someone here in Costa Rica said it would get her high and she was explaining how she was in so much pain but was asking on FACEBOOK of all websites if there was any 'natural way' to cure it, like uhh yeah no you need a helicopter to the hospital
pmoriarty 5y ago
"There are mushrooms that taste very bad, and (in the worst case) will cause stomach upset (vomiting) but nothing that will kill you outright." This is false and dangerous misinformation! Mushrooms can certainly kill you, and people have died from eating poisonous mushrooms. Just one example, from the Amanita[1] genus: "Several members of the section Phalloidieae are notable for their toxicity, containing toxins known as amatoxins, which can cause liver failure and death. These include the death cap A. phalloides; species known as destroying angels, including A. virosa, A. bisporigera and A. ocreata; and the fool's mushroom, A. verna." "More recently, a series in the subgenus Lepidella has been found to cause acute kidney failure, including A. smithiana of northwestern North America, A. pseudoporphyria of Japan, and A. proxima of southern Europe." [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita#Toxicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita#Toxicity
- qmarchi 5y ago
  He was noting in his specific locale, where it's entirely possible that there aren't any toxic/poisonous variants.
  - anm89 5y ago
    I'm actually kind of skeptical that anywhere exists with no toxic mushrooms. I know in my region there are many. Probably 100+ and at least 5-10 very common ones.
psychlops 5y ago
This is absolutely true. I'm an amateur forager, but try to make it out with the mushroom club once per year to learn more. For me, it started with identifying one mushroom (morels) and the variants that make people sick. Part of me doesn't mind that people stay afraid, it's less competition for a great time hunting. The other part rolls their eyes at those who don't do educated risk for the reward.
dfsegoat 5y ago
> There's a crazy amount of inertia around the 'mushroom foraging is only for experts' idea. Yeah, it's for good reason, when it comes to "LBMs" - little brown mushrooms - of which the Psilocybe genus is largely composed: You can find example photos of Psychoactive species literally growing right next to e.g. Gallerina species, which will nuke your liver. https://www.fungusfactfriday.com/124-galerina-marginata/ https://www.fungusfactfriday.com/124-galerina-marginata/
anm89 5y ago
What area are you in that has nothing deadly? That is pretty surprising to me that anywhere meets that criteria. Cool if true.
amanaplanacanal 5y ago
Where do you live that there are no deadly mushrooms? Some amanita species are rapidly spreading to places they haven't been sighted before.

by a2tech 5y ago

JoeAltmaier 5y ago

Well, vomiting isn't very nice either. And some (many?) folks aren't crazy about mushrooms to start with. They may make apologies of the "I wouldn't know how to pick them safely" sort to avoid having to go mushrooming...

a2tech 5y ago
Thats undeniably true, vomiting isn't something anyone wants to do. However you're VERY unlikely to pick anything except what you're looking for if you stick to the 'biggies' of the found mushroom world as the grandparent comment covers--chicken of the wood, hen of the wood, morels, etc. They're quite distinctive and not easily confused with other things. The LBMs are a whole different kettle of fish--you're definitely into 'hard mode' when you try to differentiate those. But until you're an expert there's really no reason you'd even be looking for mushrooms in that category.
- JoeAltmaier 5y ago
  Hm. Morels around here come in 4 colors, and some of those can resemble other toxic mushrooms that also grow around here. It can seem 'easy' to distinguish when familiar. But if you're coming at it fresh it's quite daunting. And to make your friends sick is a significant faux pas. Anyway that leaves the "I don't want to do this, and I want a 'good reason' and the death card is a good reason" cause of reluctance. It may be more common that we think.
  - anm89 5y ago
    Yeah but how hard is it to get a guidebook and figure out if Morels are a safe pick in your area. If you already know morels have look a likes where you are, then don't pick them unless you have put in the time on your own research and feel you know how to make that particular ID. Especially after I've picked something, it is really easy to move backwards and say "is there uncertainty with what this could be?".
anm89 5y ago
In years of eating foraged mushrooms, I have never gotten so much as a stomach ache. If you are making educated identifications (which is really easy to do with the materials available in this age) you shouldn't ever be vomiting when eating mushrooms. A very small percentage of people cannot handle most of the mushrooms that other people can and will vomit but this is true of many other food categories and is not unique to mushrooms.
- jamal-kumar 5y ago
  You ever try and make accurate spore prints on LBMs without a microscope? We're talking the entire class of little to no culinary value little brown things. Name some tasty ones, go! Now let's bring in the 'lets get fucked up' crowd and see how much chaos can happen.

breakfastduck 5y ago

How can we be so certain there are no killer mushrooms in your area? We have no idea what is growing on a daily basis, the guidebooks were only accurate on the date of publication.

anm89 5y ago
This just isn't true. There aren't new mushroom species popping up in the night with any regularity. In the US we have a very good survey of what is out there. I have never heard a story of someone making a positive identification based on the resources available, then getting poisoned because they had discovered a new species which had total overlap with their positive identification. Doesn't mean it's never happened but I would say if it has it is exceedingly rare. In the same way we don't not drive because it's possible to crash, I'm not going to stop foraging because of the possibility of super outlier events.
- breakfastduck 5y ago
  I was talking about misidentifying because there's a mushroom present that 'shouldnt' be in the area, not an entirely new species, lets not get carried away because it frustrated you. There are plenty of things people dont do because of the risk, so your argument there is complete nonsense. Sure jumping out of a plane with a parachute is going to be safe if you're confident you know what you're doing, but there's plenty of people (including myself) that wouldn't dare do it. The comment I responded to had this - "but she wouldn't budge from the belief that if you're not an expert you'll pick a mushroom and die. People are missing out on a very enjoyable past time because of fear mongering." Which is an unbelievably ignorant attitude. Comes across as "People aren't getting into X hobby I like because they're afraid, so we should peer pressure them into doing it anyway" (even though someone who is nervous is 10x more likely to make a mistake that DOES end in death or illness)

Symbiote 5y ago

Here's an example of someone (who ought to have known better) ending up near-death with kidney failure after a misidentification. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/13/filmadaptations https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/13/filmadaptation...

alecst 5y ago
> Nicholas - We had this family doctor came around and we knew pretty well actually what they were. I mean, we looked in the book the very next morning when Alastair started feeling ill and Charlotte was already ill. It was so clear from the photograph that what we had eaten, it wasn't a cep. It was themushroom called cortinarius speciosissimus which some people call the deadly webcap apparently. It had a rather comforting skull and cross bones underneath it, with a little caption, deadly poisonous. https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/nicholas-evans-poisonous-mistake https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/nicho... I feel bad for the guy -- really, so, so bad -- but you have to be really confused to mix up a bolete with a webcap. Webcap: https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/images/cortinariales/cortinarius-orellanus1.jpg https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/images/cortinariales/cort... Porcino: https://lovelygreens.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/cep-porcini.jpg https://lovelygreens.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/cep-porc... Porcini don't have gills! This is like mushrooms 101. Doesn't this kind of prove the rule? I feel like most of the cases of people getting sick from mushrooms are cases like this.
- Alex3917 5y ago
  Right, of people who die from mushroom poisoning, they are almost all either immigrants eating things that look like edible mushrooms where they come from, or else children who are randomly eating things they see in their lawn. Cases like this where you have someone who has been foraging for decades and eats something deadly poisonous happen maybe once every ten years, and I suspect it's mostly people with early onset Parkinson's or something that's causing them to act impulsively. This isn't an identification mistake, there's clearly some kind of neurological issue here.
- floatingatoll 5y ago

dfxm12 5y ago

People are missing out on a very enjoyable past time because of fear mongering. It's subjective that people would find it enjoyable. Even of all the past times one can do, there are similar ones, like birding, hiking, gardening, etc. We're not short on past times that, even in the worst case, won't even leave you vomiting.

boring_twenties 5y ago
Hiking is far from risk-free, there are many ways to die and people do so somewhat regularly.
- slothtrop 5y ago
  No one needs to pick up a manual to hike.
  - boring_twenties 5y ago
    Um, yeah you do. You need to be able to, at a minimum, survive overnight in the event you get stuck up there.
    - slothtrop 5y ago
      Hiking doesn't necessarily mean going "up", let alone through highly steep paths. Walking through the woods in uneven terrain is hiking.
      - boring_twenties 5y ago
        OK, I should have said "out there" instead of "up there" -- happy now? It doesn't change my point at all. What happens when you twist your ankle in those uneven woods and are unable to get out before nightfall?
        slothtrop 5y ago

radec 5y ago

Sadly I think it's fine. Where I live in the PNW there are way to many people mushroom foraging who seem to have little to no idea how to be in the woods. People rake the forest floor, people leave trash, people leave toilet paper, etc. I've actually stopped mushroom foraging in most places because the forest completely over foraged. In my experience with most outdoor activities the concept of leave no trace is completely lost on people, so unfortunately I'm fine with less people mushroom foraging.

jamal-kumar 5y ago
I try and explain the very easy concept of making a spore print to people and they just look at me like "wow you're really smart i don't think i could do that" ... Right after I just explained how easy it is. Reminds me of explaining password mnemonics to people sometimes. I really don't think a lot of people are prepared for taking basic safety measures and the amount of people getting poisoned in the news is high enough that I feel the alarm is warranted. I remember seeing this one photo of a girl biting an amanita species saying how someone here in Costa Rica said it would get her high and she was explaining how she was in so much pain but was asking on FACEBOOK of all websites if there was any 'natural way' to cure it, like uhh yeah no you need a helicopter to the hospital

pmoriarty 5y ago

"There are mushrooms that taste very bad, and (in the worst case) will cause stomach upset (vomiting) but nothing that will kill you outright." This is false and dangerous misinformation! Mushrooms can certainly kill you, and people have died from eating poisonous mushrooms. Just one example, from the Amanita[1] genus: "Several members of the section Phalloidieae are notable for their toxicity, containing toxins known as amatoxins, which can cause liver failure and death. These include the death cap A. phalloides; species known as destroying angels, including A. virosa, A. bisporigera and A. ocreata; and the fool's mushroom, A. verna." "More recently, a series in the subgenus Lepidella has been found to cause acute kidney failure, including A. smithiana of northwestern North America, A. pseudoporphyria of Japan, and A. proxima of southern Europe." [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita#Toxicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita#Toxicity

qmarchi 5y ago
He was noting in his specific locale, where it's entirely possible that there aren't any toxic/poisonous variants.
- anm89 5y ago
  I'm actually kind of skeptical that anywhere exists with no toxic mushrooms. I know in my region there are many. Probably 100+ and at least 5-10 very common ones.

psychlops 5y ago

This is absolutely true. I'm an amateur forager, but try to make it out with the mushroom club once per year to learn more. For me, it started with identifying one mushroom (morels) and the variants that make people sick. Part of me doesn't mind that people stay afraid, it's less competition for a great time hunting. The other part rolls their eyes at those who don't do educated risk for the reward.

dfsegoat 5y ago

> There's a crazy amount of inertia around the 'mushroom foraging is only for experts' idea. Yeah, it's for good reason, when it comes to "LBMs" - little brown mushrooms - of which the Psilocybe genus is largely composed: You can find example photos of Psychoactive species literally growing right next to e.g. Gallerina species, which will nuke your liver. https://www.fungusfactfriday.com/124-galerina-marginata/ https://www.fungusfactfriday.com/124-galerina-marginata/

anm89 5y ago

What area are you in that has nothing deadly? That is pretty surprising to me that anywhere meets that criteria. Cool if true.

amanaplanacanal 5y ago

Where do you live that there are no deadly mushrooms? Some amanita species are rapidly spreading to places they haven't been sighted before.