#potential confusions

[mushroomgay]

Abernethy Forest, Scotland, UK, August 2023

Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius)

I've been hiking and wild camping in Scotland's gorgeous ancient woodland and have found SO many amazing mushrooms - I can't wait to sort through pics and post for you all to see!

Most excitingly though, I found LOADS of chanterelles, which I've only ever found one or two of before. I gathered a potful (more than pictured here, and still leaving most of what I saw) and they made an amazing addition to my campside ramen. Tonight some more will go in a pasta sauce, then I'm planning a risotto for the rest :)

These mushrooms are delicious and highly sort after. They can be recognised by their irregular caps, apricot smell, veins on the underside rather than true gills, and white flesh which can be seen when they're cut in two.

There are two main potential confusions to be aware of:

Jack o Lanterns (Omphalotus olearius) - these are similarly sized orange mushrooms which might be mistaken for chanterelles at first. However, they clearly have gills on the underside rather than veins. These fungi are poisonous.

False chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca) - these are a more plausible confusion, as the name suggests. They have true gills, but they look a lot like the veins of the chanterelle.

They can be distinguished from 'true' chanterelles by their yellow-orange flesh when they are cut open, their lack of apricot smell, their darker cap centres and more regular caps. The best way to distinguish them is to cut them in half - you will see the colour of the flesh, and also whether there is a margin between the cap flesh and the gills. True chanterelles do not have this, whereas false chanterelles will show that the gill is separate to the cap. Young chanterelles and false chanterelles really do look quite similar, so be careful! Luckily, false chanterelles aren't seriously poisonous - they produce the symptoms of mild food poisoning, and there are some dubious reports of psychedelic effects.

[mushroomgay]

Cambridgeshire, UK, November 2023

Trooping funnels (Infundibulicybe geotropa)

These lovely fungi are substantial and delicious, and often found in large numbers, making them an excellent one to look out for in autumn and well into winter.

We found these while out walking with a couple of friends who wanted to get into mushroom hunting, and they were very pleased with the find, including the find of the 'baby' funnels at the base of the larger ones!

Care should be taken to distinguish these fungi from the livid pinkgill (Entoloma sinuatum), a quite severely poisonous (though rarely deadly) mushroom. Luckily, along with some other distinguishing features, trooping funnels have a white spore print, while the livid pinkgill's is, predictably, pink, meaning they can easily be ruled out with certainty.

I made these into a creamy tarragon pasta sauce, delicious.

[mushroomgay]

Abernethy Forest, Scotland, August 2023

Ochre brittlegill (Russula citrina)

This lovely edible is a good fungi for beginners to seek.

It is a member of the brittlegill Russula family, a family which split from other fungi very early on. They have unusual round cells, rather than the elongated cells typical to most fungi, which makes the mushroom brittle. You can test if you have a brittlegill by running a finger along the gills, which will break easily.

Once you are a sure you have a brittlegill, most yellow Russulas are safe (I will write about an exception in a moment). You can however perform a taste test to check - chew a small amount of the cap and spit it out. Edible Russulas taste mild, while the poisonous ones have a hot, peppery taste that will burn on your tongue.

Remember: this test is only applicable to Russulas, not to every mushroom! You need to be sure you have a Russula before carrying it out.

One potential confusion to be aware of is the Geranium Brittlegill (Russula fellea), which looks similar but smells strongly of geraniums. Some people label this mushroom as simply inedible rather than toxic, but opinions differ, and either way you want to avoid it. A small taste test as described above is the best way to do this.

[mushroomgay]

Abernethy Forest, Scotland, August 2023

The Greenfoot Tooth (Hydnellum scabrosum)

This is a potential confusion for Hedgehog fungus (Hydnum repandum) which is a popular edible, and generally very safe for beginners to identify and forage.

This look-a-like can be recognised by its darker, rather than buff cap, smaller spines on the underside, and green tinge to the base of the stipe. Some consider this mushroom poisonous, but it is eaten as a condiment in a dried, powdered form in some countries.

[mushroomgay]

Abernethy Forest, Scotland, August 2023

False Saffron Milkcap (Lactarius deterrimus)

These fungi are a non-toxic look-a-like to the delicious Saffron Milkcap (Lactarius deliciosus). They are not poisonous, but are unpleasant tasting and generally avoided. They can be recognised by their duller caps, which take on green-ish brown markings, and the lack of pitting on their stem.

[mushroomgay]

Lincolnshire, UK, October 2022

False chanterelles (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca)

Superficially similar to the much-coveted edible chanterelles, once you are familiar with these look-a-likes they are easy to tell apart, even from a distance, as they tend to be a deeper orange, and have a more smooth, uniform margin to their cap, rather than the true chanterelles’ undulating margins. 

There are several signs to look out if uncertain: for the false chanterelle has true gills, while true chanterelles have folds under their caps. True chanterelles have a pleasant apricot smell, while false chanterelles do not. Most importantly, if cut open, false chanterelles have yellow or orange flesh, while true chanterelles will always be white. 

False chanterelles aren’t usually considered seriously toxic, but they can cause stomach upsets, and there have been reports of more serious reactions. They also lack the culinary value of true chanterelles. 

[mushroomgay]

Epping Forest, London, UK, August 2020

Sickener (Russula emetica) 

I was super excited to find red Russulas and have an excuse to taste test them - russulas are infamously difficult to identify down to a species, and these poisonous sickeners, and their close relative the beechwood sickener  (Russula nobilis) are pretty much impossible to distinguish with certainty by sight alone from edible rosy brittlegill (Russula rosea), Russula paludosa, and could even be confused with the flirt (Russula vesca). 

Luckily, sickeners and beechwood sickeners can be distinguished as poisonous by their taste - take a small chunk, chew it briefly and spit it out thoroughly. The poisonous sickener mushrooms have a hot or peppery taste, and may slightly sting/burn your lips and tongue in a similar way. By contrast, edible red-capped, white-stemmed Russulas have a generic, mild, mushroom-ey taste. 

Though they’re very unlikely to kill you, eating these mushrooms will cause severe stomach pains, cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. 

Often growing in large, scattered groups, they brighten up the forest floor, though these specimens are less vibrantly red than usual, it having rained and dried in the 24 hours before my walk.

[mushroomgay]

Barnet, London, UK, September 2019

False turkeytail (Stereum ostrea)

These perfect rosettes of false turkeytail are easily distiguished up close since, being a crust fungi, they have a smooth underside, with no pores, unlike true turkeytail. False turkeytail also tends to have far more red and orange tones, in my experience, though these colours are not absent on some specimens of turkeytail.