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Large fungus amongus

Daisy Razor took this photo of a large fungusy thing on Glenhaven Road in West Roxbury, wonders what it is and whether she should warn the neighborhood kids to stay away from it.

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Comments

Stay away from it? Hell - maybe we can eat it!!

Looks like a parasol to me (macrolepiota). If that's correct, they are quite tasty, however there are several highly poisonous species that look almost identical to macrolepiot, including some amanitas. A spore print and a lot of experience would be necessary to verify the species.

Generally speaking, it's safe to eat mushrooms that don't have gills (like this one does). The 'shrooms that have a smooth surface covered with tiny holes under the cap are in the polypore family, and they are nearly all edible (though some aren't that tasty). Of course, as an old friend once pointed out, "They're all edible, just some will kill you."

This time of year the yummy edibles are sulphur shelf and hen-of-the-woods.

Perry

Terrible advice. There are numerous poisonous boletes and plenty of other inedible ones that will give you the shits.

The proper advice is to NEVER eat wild mushrooms unless you are an expert and 100% certain that they are fine

Even if you get Mikey to eat it, and he's OK a couple of hours later, you should still not eat it. Some of those mushrooms kill you days later.

Also, you should take care of Mikey's survivors.

He choked on Pop rocks!

(For anyone who's wondering - last I heard he was actually working in the finance biz in the NY area - and was fine).

Anything that looks like a nipple should be edible.

Cannot be unseen.

Merely large? No, that's a humongous fungus amongus!

Bad 80's music was like out of control mushroom growth.

AOD bad? Surely you jest, sir.

Which is a delish edible - I tried some last week. But never eat a wild mushroom unless you have identified it without a doubt. Make a spore print, always cook before eating, and keep an uncooked specimen in case you wind up in the hospital.

http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/reddening-lepiota

never eat a wild mushroom unless you have identified it without a doubt. Make a spore print, always cook before eating, and keep an uncooked specimen in case you wind up in the hospital.

Or just avoid all mushrooms at all times. It has served me well these many years.

1) Don't eat any wild mushrooms unless you are an expert on them. For the rest of us, and I include myself, there's Whole Foods for all the exotic and entirely edible wild mushrooms that you might want. Expensive, yes, but cheaper than a kidney transplant (or a funeral).

2) That said, even poisonous mushrooms are not dangerous to touch. There are such things in this world as chemicals that can kill you by touch: for example, in 1996 a Dartmouth chemistry professor died from a tiny amount of mercury that she absorbed through latex gloves that she was wearing. But toxins in poisonous mushrooms must be consumed to harm you.