Edible Mushrooms in the Capital Area, Part 1

There is a technicality I must get through before posting about eating mushrooms. I have to warn you that unless you know what you are doing - and I mean REALLY know, not "I read about this mushroom in some guy's blog" know - eating wild mushrooms is incredibly dangerous. In this part of the world, there are approximately a half-dozen very common deadly poisonous mushroom species. There are quite a few more which are much less common. Others will not kill a human being, but will make most of us very, very sick. There is at least one species which is perfectly edible but will cause violent nausea and vomiting if alcohol is consumed up to three days before or after eating. Sometimes the substrate (what the mushroom is "eating") can add poisonous qualities to an otherwise safe find; man-made effects can cause similar problems. Even edible mushrooms can provoke allergic reactions in some people, and since most people have not been exposed to a wide variety of wild mushrooms these reactions are largely unpredictable.

It is not the existence of these poisonous species that make mycophagy dangerous. After all, there are deadly poisonous plants, fishes, and so on, and no one tells us not to take up fishing or eat wild blackberries. What makes wild mushrooms so dangerous is that species are not readily identifiable by sight in most cases. A significant amount of work is necessary to determine precisely what mushroom you have, and it is often a very subtle characteristic that separates the deadly from the delicious. Sometimes proper identification requires a spore print. Often a mushroom's environment removes characteristics that have a bearing on identity, such as a ring on the stem (or stipe, if you want to be pompous about it). Sometimes there is more intraspecies than interspecies variation in physical traits.  Further muddying the picture is a simple lack of background science - countless mushroom species are as yet unstudied. Even some of those which have been known and collected for centuries are subjects of taxonomic arguments.

I hope the above has made my point. I fully support new initiates into the hobby of mycology...but if you find yourself intrigued, don't use my blog (or anyone else's) as your point of reference. Understand that it is a hobby to be taken seriously. It can, however, be very safe if the proper cautions are exercised. This means 1) learning to identify all deadly poisonous mushrooms in your area, 2) never eating any mushroom you have not identified with absolute certainty, 3) progressing slowly with small samples for first-time tasters, and 4) never ignoring one trait because another gets your hopes up. With that in mind, I recommend Musroom Expert as an online resource. This book was my first on the topic, and it is written with whimsy alongside real knowledge. Supplementing a fun book like this with a more complete guide, like Audubon's or Simon and Schuster's, is a good place to start.

Now that I have frightened you, and subsequently bored you, I present the photographs. All mushrooms pictured below are specimens found in the Mid-Atlantic United States, and all are edible. In fact, all of these were found within two hours' driving distance from Washington, DC.

Clavicorona pyxidata - one of the first I ate, as it was an easy ID. The closest thing this species has to a common name is "crown-tipped coral." Similar but inedible species grow from the ground and not on wood.

Gyrodon merulioides - This ugly and foul-tasting (but technically edible) mushroom is sometimes known as the ash-tree bolete. It grows like crazy in my apartment complex from late summer through the fall. Its redeeming quality is its fascinating ecological niche. It is only found near ash trees - not because of the trees themselves, but because they are symbiotic with a species of insect which feeds only on ash trees.

In the foreground is a specimen of Cantharellus cinnabarinus (cinnabar-red chanterelle). The background is a mixture of these and Cantharellus lateritius (smooth chanterelle). They were part of a wonderful meal.

Auricularia auricula...known variously as tree ear, jelly ear, and (thanks to racist biologists of bygone days) Jew's ear. Apparently some mycologists treat this like chewing gum (yuck).

Orange jelly, aka Dacrymyces palmatus, is edible...but I haven't been quite so adventurous yet, myself. When a close relative is called "witch's butter," I am somewhat put off.

This is another I've not yet felt bold enough to try, Hericium erinaceus. Colloquially known as the "bearded tooth" this mushroom is odd in oh-so-many ways, not least of which is that one can eat something that looks and feels like this.

Hungry yet? My mouth is watering at the prospect of a new mushroom season. Morels should be appearing right about now in this part of the country. Alas, I've yet to encounter any of these lusted-after but elusive gems in my young mushrooming career. When I do first find this crown jewel of fungi, I'll be sure to share photos and accounts of the dining experience here.