Source: Wikipedia
The Funnel Chanterelle or Yellowfoot looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland, but is also edible.
Source: Wikipedia
The next specimen doesn't even look like a mushroom, let alone edible, but it is - known as the lion's mane mushroom or hedgehog mushroom. I think you really have to use your imagination to see anything resembling a hedgehog.
Source: Wikipedia
This next mushroom certainly doesn't look like anything I'd want to eat. I mentioned shitakes, well, this is a maitake and grows at the base of trees, particularly oaks.
Source: Wikipedia
Maitake means 'dancing mushroom'. I don't think it looks like it's dancing. It's also known as Hen-of-the-woods. Who names these things?
And here's one that looks like something from Star Trek - a black morel.
Source: Wikipedia
Morels are especially used in French cuisine. Nearly every mushroom has many names depending on the area of the U.S. or country you're in. I've included several for each 'shroom, but certainly not all that are commonly used. Morels are also known as hickory chickens, merkels, sponge mushrooms, dryland fish, and my personal favorite, molly moochers!
All wild mushrooms should be cooked thoroughly before eating as they are indigestible when raw. And care should be taken in identifying them if you intend to pick your own because many can look similar to their toxic or poisonous counterparts. Only a few varieties are actually lethal, but many more can make you extremely ill.
There are some unusual UNedible species as well. Like ghost mushrooms, which are sometimes confused with oyster mushrooms. Not sure? Wait until dark because the ghost mushroom has bioluminescent gills.
Source: Wikipedia
It almost looks like a rose bud. Here's what it looks like in the dark.
Source: Wikipedia
Think this looks like a common white mushroom? Then you would be gravely wrong because this is one of the deadly varieties known as the Destroying Angel.
Source: Wikipedia
You can click on the link underneath the above picture to see the entire list of deadly mushrooms.
One of the next pictures is of the jack-o-lantern mushroom which is toxic and the other is a chantarelle mushroom which is edible. Can you tell the difference?
Source: Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia
The top picture is the jack-o-lantern toxic one.
Mushrooms have uses other than eating. Some are used in traditional Chinese medicines, and mushrooms are being studied by Western medical researchers to see if they have benefits as well. In some countries, mushrooms extracts are given as a supplement to the primary cancer treatments. Mushrooms were also used as dyes for natural fabrics before synthetic dyes were invented.
I've never been much of a mushroom fan myself, but then I've never had the more exotic types. Mushrooms were just not on the menu when I was growing up unless it was something made with Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup and I can't remember that we had that very often. I think the texture has something to do with it, plus the fact that I don't think mushrooms have much taste. I'll leave it up to my chef friends and relatives to prove me wrong!
Yum, hen of the woods! We've eaten these and they are good. I even found one on our mushroom walk one year. They also sell them in the farmer's market in Warwick.
ReplyDeleteYou have to be very careful identifying mushrooms! It's a fun hobby to look for them and identify them. We only eat what we know for sure. We have morels that come up in our yard in the spring. You left them out! They certainly don't look like anything you could eat...
That Jack-o-lantern one looks just like the mushrooms by my neighbor's stone wall that I posted a pic of on my blog a few months back, remember?
Okay, Lynne, I've added morels just for you!
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