Mushroom foraging

Can you take them to the pharmacist and have them identified like you can ( or could ) in France ? It always seemed a bit unreliable as identification is really tricky with many species without taking spore prints.

You mean because people have been using apps to try and identify mushrooms? Oh dear.

Give me actual knowledge over f****** mobile phones any time.

It’s not really any different to taking a field guide out though is it ? Some of the apps are pretty good- I use a Tree Fungus app all the time when I’m out surveying trees and narrowing down what I’m looking at and what it means. I also use a Fungi app that has a range of filters based on features which is really useful if you’re out at a site with a lot of possibles. Some of the good woodland sites have a thousand species recorded and I don’t know anyone that carts Phillips or Kibby around the field but they will have a phone . Incidentally the Brittlestems above aren’t in Phillips.

I used to work with a mycologist and he’d occasionally do a lunchtime walk around the site looking for fungi, he was quite modest about his own ability to identify fungi, but honestly we never found anything he couldn’t give the Latin name for. It was very impressive.

Yes, the app identifies the mushroom and tells whether it's edible or not. The Uni mycologist said it's completely nonsense because even professional mycologists sometimes need to put it under a microscope to be 100% sure.

Surprised the app publisher chooses to open themselves up to that level of liability, seems like a very bad idea if it being correct can literally be a matter of life and death.

Spotted a few interesting looking mushrooms on my ride yesterday. I have absolutely no idea about different types of mushroom but thought these were fun!

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I’m pretty sure I once used a plant/flower identifier app that was similar, there’s a disclaimer that basically puts the onus on the user if they eat anything that makes them ill.

If you think about it, people would never publish books if people could blame the publishers for such things.

^ this.

E.g. https://www.wildfooduk.com/disclaimer/

Yeah, depends how the app works I guess - if you just use it to filter the possibilities and ultimately make the choice yourself what it is, I think it would be fairly safe to publish (similar to a book).

If it's the type of app where you point your camera at a mushroom and it says 'EDIBLE!!!1' then it would be a different matter.

Needs fb but worth it (preview pic).

https://www.facebook.com/102299368048364/posts/183545119923788/

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Another big showing this year, I can't remember the name but supposedly a bad sign for the health of the tree.

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Have some labia looking shrooms growing in the cracks of my raised bed

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Big puffball type thing, any idea what this is? Haven't seen one this size

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who am i? picked from a grassy patch just now

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Looks like a shaggy inkcap?

Looks like Canus Turdus sp.?

Haha, not the only one to say that. Was a massive floaty turd if so

Yeah this is a shaggy inkcap, delicious if picked before they deliquesce. Hundreds in the Olympic park at the moment

Avoid the booze if eating those (and never eat anything on an internet identification anyway).

(that was @tmevans btw)

too late! i’m ded. only joking. winifred said shaggy ink cap too. whatsapp identification 100% legit

Yeah, it's weird stuff looks like shit feels like angel delight. My daughter brought one home and dropped it in one of our raised beds where it remains still.

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Could just be a very old decomposed fungus. They do rot and get their own fungal infections. Might be interesting to see the underside.

Flipside

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These look like decomposing giant puffballs.