As Autumn approaches, fungi appear. Like seaweeds, they belong to that great division of the
vegetable kingdom whose members do not produce flowers or seeds.
The fungi have no true root, stem or leaf, and the spores from which they grow are essentially different from the seeds of other plants.
Since too they are without the chemical substance known as chlorophyll, they must live either on other plants or on decaying matter; as parasites or saprophytes. Mushrooms, toadstools, puff-balls, and tree brackets; moulds on stale bread and jam, the yeast used in bread making and brewing,the spots on a sycamore leaf and the dry rot of timber.
Non poisonous fungi go by the name of esculent and are considerably more numerous that most people imagine. But some are not readily distinguishable from certain poisonous varieties.
Testing – not by smell or spoon!
Beginning as a spore, fungi develop into a thickly tangled network of mycelium which spreads outwards, the edge forming a fairy ring on the surface of the grass. The mushrooms spring up from underground.
Edible fungi are best distinguished by the colour of the gills. In new mushrooms they are a delicate pink, developing into purple to brownish-black.
Another test is the ease in which the skin of a mushroom cap can be peeled off.
Smell, unpleasant or not, is no indicator of safety. Nor is the belief that a toxic mushroom will discolour a silver spoon!
Deadly mistakes
Most insidious, because of its resemblance to the edible mushroom is the suitably named death cap, which is common to broadleaf forests.
Deadly webcaps, often mistaken for Chanterelles are found in pinewoods.
The destroying angel is pure white and elegant and found in mixed broadleaf and birch woods.
The funeral bell is small and shaped as named growing in clusters around tree stumps, but thankfully rare.
The fool’s funnel or sweating mushroom causes just that and is found in grassy areas often alongside the edible scotch bonnet.
The panther cap is the lesser known sister to fly agaric, the red cap replaced by brown. It too causes visual distortions, hallucinations, delusions and convulsions.
Finally you may come across angel’s wings, a white bracket fungus growing in clusters on decaying conifer wood. It’s quite common in Cumbria and the Scottish Highlands, though rare elsewhere.
Needless to say, if in doubt leave it out!