wrote in
:

wrote:
They are almost certainly Agaricus/Psalliota (i.e. common
mushrooms), but one of the key rules of picking those is
not to pick them until they have started to open and their
gills are a very definite pinkish brown. The chances of
including an Amanita are very low, but the cost of doing
so is vast. And, yes, you CAN get a single Amanita growing
amoung a mass of Agaricus.

So what's the key to the difference between the two?

Ah, an easy question to answer: most (but not all)
agaricus/psalliota are perfectly edible and delicious.
Most (but not all) amanita are very dangerous.

Distinguishing between them requires significant
expertise and, given the consequences, nobody in
their right mind would give sufficient information
for you to believe that you could distinguish them
before eating them. And you would be wise to ignore
any simple tests/descriptions.

If you are still interested, get *several* highly
regarded books (e.g. Philips) and attend a local
fungi identification course.


I hadn't realised amanita were very similar to the common. I'm
guessing you're specifically thinking of the death cap? And
from the picture here I'm guessing the differences are the gill
colour is white/pale, and stem bag?

See above.

wrote in
:

wrote:
To a naive person, the fungus that grew in my garden that I
couldn't identify might have been taken for a horse or even
field mushroom. It was a suitable shape, with suitable gills,
whitish and the gills went pinkish brown as it matured. But
I think that it was a Hebeloma, all of which are poisonous
(though not lethal). I knew enough to be damn sure that it
wasn't an Agaricus, even if I couldn't tell what it was.

Blimey, they do look similar looking at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebeloma I /have/ grown plain common
mushrooms from a kit before (and I have one still /trying/ to grow in
the bathroom, but it's really really not having it!!), but there isn't
much risk going on there. :-}

Those pictures and description aren't sufficient for you
to be able to identify species accurately. Don't forget
that anyone can create/edit wackypedia pages, and there
is a whole sub-industry devoted to "sanitising" entries.

Is wackypedia a suitable basis for making life-criticla
decisions?

"Tom" wrote in message
2.222...
wrote in
:

wrote:
To a naive person, the fungus that grew in my garden that I
couldn't identify might have been taken for a horse or even
field mushroom. It was a suitable shape, with suitable gills,
whitish and the gills went pinkish brown as it matured. But
I think that it was a Hebeloma, all of which are poisonous
(though not lethal). I knew enough to be damn sure that it
wasn't an Agaricus, even if I couldn't tell what it was.

Blimey, they do look similar looking at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebeloma I /have/ grown plain common
mushrooms from a kit before (and I have one still /trying/ to grow in
the bathroom, but it's really really not having it!!), but there isn't
much risk going on there. :-}

Those pictures and description aren't sufficient for you
to be able to identify species accurately. Don't forget
that anyone can create/edit wackypedia pages, and there
is a whole sub-industry devoted to "sanitising" entries.

Is wackypedia a suitable basis for making life-criticla
decisions

No and neither was my mushroom book.
I made a bad decision once, never again.

Don't give up, it happens to most wild mushroom foragers occasionally, just make sure you can identify the seriously poisonous ones such as the Aminitas.

Don't forget, that the Agaricus xanthodermus, the yellow stainer mushroom can cause tummy upsets.
Both the Horse Mushroom and Yellow Stainer ‘bruise’ yellow. But the Yellow Stainer has a stronger chromium yellow once bruised. If you rub the cap with your thumb, there will be a very noticeable colour change. A good test is at the base. Take a knife to the bottom of the stem, the base is more bulbous than the others, and cut in half, if the colour changes to a vivid yellow, then you’ve got a Yellow Stainer. (this is why you should always pull up a few of the specimens so that you can look at the stem base as it's an essential part of the identification process) Horse and Field mushrooms do not stain at the base like this.

http://www.mushroomdiary.co.uk/wp-co...ainer-ring.jpg

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...wgOVYrgt29STw6

In article ,
Granity wrote:
Christina Websell;962568 Wrote:

Is wackypedia a suitable basis for making life-criticla
decisions-

No and neither was my mushroom book.
I made a bad decision once, never again.

Don't give up, it happens to most wild mushroom foragers occasionally,
just make sure you can identify the seriously poisonous ones such as the
Aminitas.

This may come across offensively, but I need to be explicit.

Frankly, unless she is prepared to take advice from the informed,
she is better giving up. And that advice is uniformly that it is
CRITICAL to go out at least a couple of times with someone who
knows a reasonable amount to learn what the various characteristics
look like in real life. It also is that pictures are NOT ENOUGH,
and it is essential to learn the basics of descriptions, and to
use pictures merely as a search aid.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.