Mushrooms Of Witton
FIRST THINGS FIRST (A Warning to all)
Firstly I would like to say that looking for and collecting mushrooms can be great fun but you must remember that not all of them are EDIBLE and that some of them are dangerous like the DEATH CAP (amanita phalloides) for instance which can kill via liver and kidney failure and that of the FLY AGARIC (amanita muscaria) which is hallucinogenic and poisonous and could cause bodily injury if eaten, so just remember to get to know what you are looking for first.
Brown Birch Bolete (Leccinum Scabrum)
Note: Just recently I saw an article in a daily newspaper about and incident involving mushrooms where a girl had picked some mushrooms in the garden next to a tree and gave them to her mum who actually cooked them and ate them along with her father, they turned out to be DEATH CAP (amanita phalloides) basically the mum died and the father survived as he did not eat as many, so as you can see a lack of knowledge played a big part in this tragic story.
There is however another story of this type of thing that happened to two men in America but I don’t know much about it so I will not go into it.
So as said get to know what you are looking for before you pick, cook and eat ok.
ABOUT LOOKING FOR AND COLLECTING MUSHROOMS AND TOADSTOOLS
However if you want to go looking for mushrooms and toadstools whether it’s for the purpose of eating or just to see what you can find then I suggest you buy one of the excellent guides available to learn about the families and their edibility’s, colours and habitats so you can familiarise yourself with the world of fungi. Some of the books that are available are –
• FUNGI OF BRITAIN AND EUROPE by David Attenborough
• MUSHROOMS AND OTHER FUNGI OF GREAT BRITAIN by Roger Phillips
• THE COLLINS GEM GUIDES TO MUSHROOMS AND TOADSTOOLS
Always remember when collecting fungi (mushrooms and toadstools) there are six things to examine which will help in identification, the CAP Check the size, the shape, the colours and the textures (is it smooth or sticky, or fibrous or scaly?) the STEM Check the height and width, the colour, is there a evidence of a ring, volva, root or basal bulb. The FLESH Check the colour and texture, is it fibrous or crumbly? Does it give off milk? Check the smell and taste (taste on tip of your tongue then spit out) the GILLS Check the colour, shape and the attachment to the stem the SPORES Check the colour of the spore theHABITAT Check if it grows on wood, soil or manure. Does it grow in grassland or woodland? And under or close to what type of tree or plant? And don’t forget to take note of what sort of tree or plant it is, is the soil chalky or acid?.
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Here are 2 diagrams of a Mushroom Click to enlarge them
SO WHERE CAN YOU FIND MUSHROOMS?
Most people think that mushrooms are typically found in woodlands, well this it true but as all collectors of mushrooms will learn that firstly there are some species that grow in most natural and some artificial habitats and, secondly some species grow in a variety of habitats when the conditions are right, and some are confined to highly specific ecological places.
Once you realize and understand this it is highly likely you will find what you are looking for, in short get to know where mushrooms grow and the types of habitats they like that can give them the food they need to grow like the fly agaric (Amanita Muscaria) for example which thrives under and around silver birch trees, as do various other Amanita’s and Bolete’s or Parasol Mushroom (Lepiota Rhacodes) they grow on rich soil in gardens and on roadside verges.
A BIT ABOUT HOW I GOT INTO IT
When I first started out looking for mushrooms I was around 10 years old out walking with my father and my dog in Witton Country Park when I saw a strange looking object which had a white stem with a red top with white spots on. I wondered what it was my father said it was a toadstool immediately I was intrigued by this and looked it up in an AA nature guide when I got home and was amazed to find looking at me in full colour was that toadstool. From that point onwards I was hooked and interested in fungi (Mushrooms and Toadstools) I also bought some books on fungi or mushrooms and toadstools and every weekend I went out with my father looking to see what I could find gaining knowledge as I went along which led to us finding some edible mushrooms which we picked and took home and ate with our cooked breakfast, Mm Delicious they were.
The mushrooms we found that where edible where:
• SHAGGY INK CAP (coprinus comatus)
• WILD FIELD MUSHROOMS (agaricus campestris)
There was and is other types I found that where edible but never tried they where –
• SHAGGY PARASOL (macrolepiota rhacodes)
• ORANGE BIRCH BOLETE (leccinum versipelle)
• COULIFLOWER FUNGUS (sparassis cripa)
• BEEF-STEAK FUNGUS (fistulina hepatica)
SO WHAT IS A FUNGUS THEN?
A fungus is a non-flowering plant which lacks chlorophyll, the green matter which helps other plants to produce food from sunlight and so relies for sustenance and growth on organic matter. Plants which feed on dead plants and animals are called saprophytes. It is also said that all club shaped fungi could be divided into two groups of edible mushrooms and poisonous toadstools but there is hundreds of different fungi which fall in to neither category. It is also known that in the British Isles the most commonly eaten mushroom (fungi/fungus) is that of the common mushroom although other species are edible and a reminder that not all are poisonous, a mushroom (FUNGUS) is the only the reproductive part of the organism described as the fruit body. It grows to form and distribute the spores (e.g. the wind carries the spores and where they land another mushroom will grow) when grown they will be of different colours and sizes.
GROWTH PATTERNS OF A FUNGUS
The growth patterns of mushrooms and toadstools (fungi) vary from being up close together in groups (clumped or clustered together) or just a single fungi either near or under trees or bushes. Take the COMMON INK CAP (coprinus atramentarius) for example which grows in big clumps/clusters of over 40 mushrooms or the FLY AGARIC (amanita muscaria ) which grow either on their own or in groups of two or three spaced out all around the base of birch trees. The reason for fungi growing where they do is because of where the spores land after being blow around in high winds and grow there at certain times of the year hence the fact of why they are spaced out all around trees or in clumps/clusters all over the place.
WHAT DOES FUNGUS ACTUALLY DO?
FUNGUS (mushrooms and toadstools) are all around us in grass and on or beneath trees because it’s nature’s way of decomposing dead and rotting wood, decaying leaves and bracken on the ground in heavy woodland (in deep forests or woods).
MY ONGOING SEARCH FOR FUNGUS IN WITTON COUNTRY PARK
My varied search for fungi within Witton Country Park has led me to the conclusion that most fungi growing here is of the amanita family owing to the abundance of birch and beach trees with the occasional oak or chestnut tree here and there, the amanita family are mostly inedible, poisonous or deadly poisonous e.g. FLY AGARIC (amanita muscaria) DEATH CAP (amanita phalloides) or THE BLUSHER (amanita rubescens). There are however a few edible ones that we found were COMMON INK CAP (coprinus atramentarius), SHAGGY INK CAP (coprinus comatus) and ORANGE BIRCH BOLETE (leccinum versipelle). The ink cap was rather tasty when fresh but yucky when left (they discolour and go black from a pinkish colour) the shaggy ink cap is very much the same but tastes a lot better (if fresh). The orange birch bolete we did not try because when we found them they were on the turn (going bad) but I am sure that they would taste good judging by the size of them, there are a few others but I will not mention them at this juncture.
