Mushroom Collecting for Beginners

Anon

Description

This rare antiquarian text constitutes the perfect handbook for those interested in mushroom-hunting. Complete with a variety of detailed diagrams and a wealth of comprehensive information on the most common mushrooms, this fascinating book is a must-have for beginners looking to start a hobby in the exciting world of mycology. As well as detailing the myriad edible and useful mushrooms commonly found in the wild, this book provides all the information one might need to know about poisonous and even deadly fungi of the fields and woods - making it a must-read for those intent on safely collecting wild mushrooms. Mushroom Collecting For Beginners has been elected for modern republication due to its immense educational value, and is proudly republished here with a prefatory introduction to the topic.

Sujets

• Edible mushroom

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 14 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528763592
• Langue: English

Extrait

MUSHROOM
COLLECTING FOR BEGINNERS
Copyright 2013 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Mushrooms
A mushroom (or toadstool) is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name mushroom is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus ; hence the word mushroom is most often applied to those fungi (Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetes) that have a stem (stipe), a cap (pileus), and gills (lamellae, sing. lamella) or pores on the underside of the cap.
The terms mushroom and toadstool go back centuries and were never precisely defined, nor was there consensus on application. The term toadstool was often, but not exclusively, applied to poisonous mushrooms or to those that have the classic umbrella-like cap-and-stem form. Between 1400 and 1600 AD, the terms tadstoles, frogstooles, frogge stoles, tadstooles, tode stoles, toodys hatte, paddockstool, puddockstool, paddocstol, toadstoole, and paddockstooles sometimes were used synonymously with mushrum, muscheron, mousheroms, mussheron, or musserouns . The term mushroom and its variations may have been derived from the French word mousseron in reference to moss ( mousse ).
Identifying mushrooms requires a basic understanding of their macroscopic structure. Most are Basidiomycetes and gilled. Their spores, called basidiospores, are produced on the gills and fall in a fine rain of powder from under the caps as a result. As a result, for most mushrooms, if the cap is cut off and placed gill-side-down overnight, a powdery impression reflecting the shape of the gills (or pores, or spines, etc.) is formed (when the fruit body is sporulating). The colour of the powdery print, called a spore print, is used to help classify mushrooms and can help to identify them. Spore print colours include white (most common), brown, black, purple-brown, pink, yellow, and creamy, but almost never blue, green, or red.
While modern identification of mushrooms is quickly becoming molecular, the standard methods for identification are still used by most and have developed into a fine art, harking back to medieval times and the Victorian era. The presence of juices upon breaking, bruising reactions, odours, tastes, shades of colour, habitat, habit, and season are all considered by both amateur and professional mycologists. Tasting and smelling mushrooms carries its own hazards though, because of poisons and allergens. In general, identification to genus can often be accomplished in the field using a local mushroom guide. Identification to species, however, requires more effort; and one must remember that a mushroom develops from a button stage into a mature structure, and only the latter can provide certain characteristics needed for the identification of the species.
However, over-mature specimens lose features and cease producing spores. Many novices have mistaken humid water marks on paper for white spore prints, or discoloured paper from oozing liquids on lamella edges for coloured spore prints. A number of species of mushrooms are poisonous; although some resemble certain edible species, consuming them could be fatal. Eating mushrooms gathered in the wild is risky and should not be undertaken by individuals not knowledgeable in mushroom identification, unless the individuals limit themselves to a relatively small number of good edible species, that are visually distinctive. People who collect mushrooms for consumption are known as mycophagists , and the act of collecting them for such is known as mushroom hunting, or simply mushrooming . Have fun!
Contents
M EADOW M USHROOM
O YSTER M USHROOM
M ASKED T RICHOLOMA
D ELICIOUS L ACTARIUS
S HAGGY M ANE
C HANTARELLE
P ARASOL
S MOOTH L EPIOTA
D ESTROYING A NGEL
F LY A GARIC
F AIRY R ING
F AWN -C OLORED P LUTEUS
E DIBLE B OLETUS
G IANT P UFFBALL
S TINKHORN
M OREL
F ALSE M OREL
A CKNOWLEDGMENT
Mushroom Collecting for Beginners
J. Walton Groves 1
Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa
In this bulletin the word mushroom is used in its widest popular sense and includes any conspicuous fleshy fungus. A more accurate and scientific way of using the term is to restrict it only to those fungi bearing gills, because in making a classification of plants, botanists try to bring related forms together in the same group-genus or family-and, in general, the fungi with gills are thought to be more closely related to one another than to fungi without gills. Therefore, to use the term mushroom for gill-bearing fungi only, does give it some scientific meaning, but here, for the sake of convenience, it will include such forms as the morels and the puffballs even though they are distinct botanically from the gill-bearing fungi.
A considerable amount of confusion exists concerning the terms mushroom and toadstool. Most people using the word toadstool have in mind some poisonous or undesirable fungus, but actually this term has no scientific meaning and does not correspond in any sense to a botanical classification. Poisonous and edible species may occur in the same genus and be quite closely related. It is, therefore, preferable to speak only of mushrooms, some of which may be edible, some poisonous; others, although not poisonous, may have undesirable characters that make them unfit for food.
Many people seem to think that it is possible to distinguish edible from poisonous mushrooms by some simple rule or test. In fact, some even believe that they know the tests.