Mushrooming stuff
Jul. 5th, 2006 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikYesterday the subject of web sites for mushroom identification came up. The best one I know of is here:
http://www.pfc.forestry.ca/biodiversity/matchmaker/what_e.html
This isn't an ID site, but one from which you can download keys. The keys I've used from here are on the technical side.
http://www.svims.ca/council/keys.htm
And some cute mushroom articles, just because:
http://w3.uwyo.edu/~fungi/Basidios2001.pdf
http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi60.pdf
BTW, I do volunteer work identifying mushrooms. While I tend to be busy and am probably not willing to drive out somewhere unless your description is particularly enticing, I will happily ID mushrooms for friends. If you are collecting something for me to look over, it's useful to make sure you dug up the base of the mushroom, and note what it is growing on and around. If you ned to store the mushroom for a while, it's best of store it in a paper bag in the refrigerator. If it's going to be stored for more than a couple of days, you might put it in a paper bag and then put that inside a plastic bag (unless it's completely soaking.)
This offer also covers mushrooms of dubious legal status. While I would *ahem* of course not ingest such things myself (certainly not recently), nor could I recommend eating them (especially straight, though there's something to be said for secreting them in a tomato sandwich) I'm firmly in the camp that believes that it is a contribution to the public good to allow people to make sure their mushrooms are what they think the are, and not something deadly poisonous*.
* There actually aren't many deadly poisonous mushrooms. Most poisonous mushrooms will leave you communing for some time with your toilette, but are not serious health risks as long as you keep yourself hydrated. But there are a few, and one which has -- at least once or twice -- been mistaken for some of our local hallucinogenics. Of course, if you want to be able to ID mushrooms safely, it's also useful to learn about mushrooms in general, and not just about the few that will make you high.
http://www.pfc.forestry.ca/biodiversity/matchmaker/what_e.html
This isn't an ID site, but one from which you can download keys. The keys I've used from here are on the technical side.
http://www.svims.ca/council/keys.htm
And some cute mushroom articles, just because:
http://w3.uwyo.edu/~fungi/Basidios2001.pdf
http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/sciencef/scifi60.pdf
BTW, I do volunteer work identifying mushrooms. While I tend to be busy and am probably not willing to drive out somewhere unless your description is particularly enticing, I will happily ID mushrooms for friends. If you are collecting something for me to look over, it's useful to make sure you dug up the base of the mushroom, and note what it is growing on and around. If you ned to store the mushroom for a while, it's best of store it in a paper bag in the refrigerator. If it's going to be stored for more than a couple of days, you might put it in a paper bag and then put that inside a plastic bag (unless it's completely soaking.)
This offer also covers mushrooms of dubious legal status. While I would *ahem* of course not ingest such things myself (certainly not recently), nor could I recommend eating them (especially straight, though there's something to be said for secreting them in a tomato sandwich) I'm firmly in the camp that believes that it is a contribution to the public good to allow people to make sure their mushrooms are what they think the are, and not something deadly poisonous*.
* There actually aren't many deadly poisonous mushrooms. Most poisonous mushrooms will leave you communing for some time with your toilette, but are not serious health risks as long as you keep yourself hydrated. But there are a few, and one which has -- at least once or twice -- been mistaken for some of our local hallucinogenics. Of course, if you want to be able to ID mushrooms safely, it's also useful to learn about mushrooms in general, and not just about the few that will make you high.
