Mushroom hunters can you ID these

Looks like Chicken of the Woods but they are growing out of the ground .

Armillaria root rot (Armillaria tabescens)

Is what it looks like to me. Not chicken of the woods..

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

I pointed my mobile phone at your online picture. Clicked google search, then clicked the picture square. It identified it as Laetiporus or chicken of the woods. I certainly wouldn't eat it without expert advice.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Looks like a poisonous jack o lantern shroom
Jacko has gills chicken has flat flesh w pores for spores
Its one of the chicken look alikes that's poisonous
Check the underside for gills, it looks like it has them in pic.
good link

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

I'm going with Mandroid7. Jack o'lantern mushroom.

Chicken of the Woods is a shelf mushroom; this one isn't.

Its not Chicken of the woods.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Physalacriaceae Family: Honey mushroom
Eta, don’t go eating it

How do you learn What's what ? I love mushrooms but am sketchy about what to eat .Even store bought Oysters make me throw up if I eat them raw .

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
How do you learn What's what ? I love mushrooms but am sketchy about what to eat .Even store bought Oysters make me throw up if I eat them raw .

It takes decades honestly. Consider finding if there are any mycology clubs, or weekend classes in your area…where do you live generally?

My wife and I have a practice and we are both vastly more proficient identifying various plants. There are maybe a dozen mushrooms we feel confident consuming in the wild, but we do go out for them every year. Reishi, chicken of the woods, oyster, matsutake, maitake, Shiitake, turkey tail, hedge hogs, chanterelles, morels are some of the better and safer.

Reishi is one of the 8 immortals, in Oriental Medicine (which I practice) and is profoundly good for you.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher
Don’t eat mushrooms raw. They must be heated to breakdown the chitin, which makes up the cell wall along with polysaccharide, beta d glucan, which is tremendous for immune support (in wood grown) and alpha glucan in soil and associated with other plants.

The ones grown on grains are alpha glucan as starch and less desirable to a purist or a practitioner.

There are a number of nutrients that are released when cooked: ergothienene, statins, b vitamins, amino acids ergot calciferol (vitamin D2) which actually increases when the mushroom fruit is dried in the sun.

Leave the mycelium when harvesting and it will expand and produce even more fruit the next year.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Ground ahrooms are always questionable.

You should have a local “club” or botanical garden tour during shroom season. Those are the best to go because they know the local flora.

Hen of the woods (on trees), like chaga, are something I would try! Finding morels after a forest fire is rite of passage around here.

Buy a guide book.Better yet, go out with a local guide.

Basically, like snakes, learn which are the real poisonous ones and the fakers. Stay away from both!

Ever try fiddlehead ferns in buter?? You won’t kill your liver!!



PS - Looks like a good foraging area! See what else you can harvest!!

The only wild mushrooms I will eat, because I know what they look like for sure, are Morel mushrooms and oyster mushrooms. I have seen some mushrooms that look like chicken of the woods that I was told were poisonous or have bad properties if not prepared correctly. When I buy mushrooms at the store, I just buy the white button mushrooms, I like the taste of those and the rocket fuel they contain does not bother me at all. I rarely eat mushrooms that are not cooked either, it seems like I digest the cooked ones much better and have no side effects at all.

Those mushrooms in the OP do resemble chicken of the woods, but chicken of the woods does not grow anywhere but on trees of a certain kind here. I also do add a little ground chaga to my coffee grounds on occasion, I buy it from the store though, even though it grows around my house. The chaga mushroom that grows on yellow birch has different properties than the one that grows on white birch from what I read, I guess the yellow birch one is better for certain medicinal uses, but I do not know enough about it or when to use it to go looking for it.

Searching Google using your image suggests Armillaria Root Rot.

As a previous poster suggested.

www.ipmimages.org...

But, what does the underside look like?

a reply to: rickymouse
Chaga , inotus obliqus, grows on the Betula/birch genus and very rarely a cherry variety (non fruiting). It seems to grow the most on yellow, which it’s spores colonize when damaged.

The mycelium grows into the heart wood of the birch/betula where it absorbs betulin converting it into betulunic acid in the conch (the hardened mass formed as the “fruit”) which you use powdered as a beverage. Betulinic acid is one of the primary constituents considered as effective in certain medical paradigms.

It was first recognized in Eastern Europe around the 15th century and has been praised for its profound properties benefiting inflammation of the digestive tract.

It’s one of my favorite mushrooms as well.

I am actually grateful for this thread because I have seen those COTW in the woods here in the bay area when I occasionally walk off the beaten path. I always wondered if the stuff I see is what is edible on those survivors' shows. And Mandroid thanks for that link as well, it really helped me know if I got the right one or not.

a reply to: worldstarcountry

Here every major city has a shroom office where you get to check your shrooms for free. It's big part of the culture and lots of accidents happen.

As a rule of thumb with shrooms, if you're not 120% sure about the identification don't eat it...

a reply to: Terpene
Agreed. One of the original uses for milk thistle seeds (silybum marianum), was for them to be carried while harvesting mushrooms, in case of ingesting poisonous fungi by accident. The silymarin A - a compound present in the dark brown seed binds with toxins in the liver and helps remove them through urea.

I was told by a mushroom seller of Travelers Rest SC that you should only eat the mushrooms growing on the trees not the soil. Also don’t eat land turtles. They ingest poisonous mushrooms. I don’t think SC has morels. This is all speculation from my life.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

There are SO many mushrooms that look similar, one is edible, one is poisonous. I wouldn't eat any unless you have zero doubt. Even then you have to know what you are doing. There are several types, like the Morel mushroom, that have to be cooked thoroughly to deactivate a toxin. I remember hearing about a woman who died eating morels at a restaurant because the cook was inexperienced and didn't cook them long enough. Just a few weeks ago I saw some mushrooms I thought were psylocibin and when I looked them up they turned out to be a type of deathcap which is very poisonous. Be careful.