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Tryptamines [Mushrooms Subthread] Shroom Hunting

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shoreline420

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Nov 19, 2006
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mushroom hunting first time!

i have been wanting to try mushrooms for years now, but have always felt i was not ready. until now i feel that i am prepared and ready to venture out into this new experience. After days of reading, and studying i want to get out there and start hunting. The only thing that seems to bother me is the fear of coming across poisonous mushrooms. The main question i have is..... are field shrooms really that dangerous???? and should i stay away from them? any advice would help me greatly. thnx :)
 
there are poisonus mushrooms that can be deadly, and there are lots that can be pretty toxic without killing you. be careful, the best thing would it be to go with somebody that has experience. its impossible to identify mushrooms absolutely foolproof from pictures.
 
There are many species of toxic mushrooms- Gallerina autmnalis springs to mind, and it resembles quite closely a psilocybe. They contain the same amatoxins as the Death Cap (A. phalloides) and the destroying angel mucshroom and will kill you. Look up Paul Stamets, i think its fungi.com- leading mycologist. Among books about generealm mushrooming (edibles) he has a very comprehensive book Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World. Don't try picking until you've read and absorbed every page. :) And then go to theshroomery
 
For starters, where are you? It's highly advisable not to go looking without someone experienced with you particular local variety. I've known people who have ended up on dialysis with kidney failure from eating the wrong mushroom, so be careful.
 
Yeah, a lot of my friends down here (in texas) want to go picking without me, but they don't really know how to identify psilocybes, so I just tell them to pick every mushroom they see that's on or near a cow pattie, and save them for me to come look at later. And if you insist on eating any mushroom you find, at least have some milk thistle capsules on hand for amanita poisoning ;) (and possibly a phone to call the ambulance)
 
If there is a recent rain or something that you think would make the conditions ideal for hunting, I would say just go out and pick everything you find, but don't eat ANYTHING. Save it for someone you know is knowledgeable to identify, or wait until you yourself can identify psilocybes. Psilocybes, luckily, are a pretty easy mushroom to identify. They have two characteristics which make them highly distinguishable from any other mushroom. First is the bluish bruising that occurs when the mushroom is poked or squished a little bit. At the point of contact, a bluish liquid/stain appears and if you squeeze it hard enough, the liquid will drip out of the mushroom. Also, many psilocybes mushrooms already have bluish stains, brusies, or tints when you find them due to some other kind of contact with something. Another thing you should look for is the color of the spores. Psilocybe spores have a very deep dark purple color to them. If you don't look closely, the spores just look black, but if you lay out a white piece of paper and tap some spores from the cap onto the paper and examine them closely, you will find they are a very particular dark purple color. These two things should help you get started, but as the other posters have made obvious, do not even think about eating anything you pick until you have read and read and read and studied and studied and studied.

Warningly
Oht
 
Mushroom hunting is safe and enjoyable if you know what you are doing. Any person who does the correct reading can quickly become capable of identifying the common mushrooms they want without the help of experts.

However, by the point that you needed to ask whether it is safe or not i doubt you have done enough research i'm afraid. You should be able to not only identify the mushrooms you are hunting but be able to identify all look alikes and importantly all deadly mushrooms that grow in the environment you are hunting in. Fields in general do not hold many deadly fungi, however this is by no means always true, deadly conocybe and lepiota species grow in fields, the former of which is possibly confusable with shrooms. In woods as someone said, galerina also is a close look alike.

There is a huge amount of unrequited fear i western society concerning mushroom hunting. You don't need to be a trained mycologist to do it safely, nor do you need an expert hunter with you. However you MUST take care.

http://www.shroomery.org/forums This is your number one resource in hunting, the hunting forums their are top class and are populated by experts and mycologists. You can uploads pictures of your shrooms and get an ID. I would recommend doing this your first few times.

Happy hunting!
 
I live in midwest and we have no psychedelic mushrooms, so good luck finding somewhereever the fuck you are
 
willow11 said:
There are many species of toxic mushrooms- Gallerina autmnalis springs to mind, and it resembles quite closely a psilocybe. They contain the same amatoxins as the Death Cap (A. phalloides) and the destroying angel mucshroom and will kill you. Look up Paul Stamets, i think its fungi.com- leading mycologist. Among books about generealm mushrooming (edibles) he has a very comprehensive book Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World. Don't try picking until you've read and absorbed every page. :) And then go to theshroomery
Click to expand...

Sound advice, for sure: Stamets is king!!!

But Gallerina autumnalis (Syn. = Gallerina marginata) grows on wood. And as any mycologist will tell you...dont eat little brown mushrooms that grow on wood!!!! And while psilocybe can grow on wood chips and mulch...they aren't going to grow on decaying logs.

IDing just calls for a clear head, gotta do much more than just match pictures. Does the habitat, spore print, bruising properties, smell, and texture also match? Always know where you pick your mushroom, especially what kinda trees are around.
 
I'd say pick everything you can, eat nothing. and identify them extremely carefully later, making sure to take spore prints and such. After that you can just throw everything bad away and keep everything good.
 
PsyGhost said:
Sound advice, for sure: Stamets is king!!!

But Gallerina autumnalis (Syn. = Gallerina marginata) grows on wood. And as any mycologist will tell you...dont eat little brown mushrooms that grow on wood!!!! And while psilocybe can grow on wood chips and mulch...they aren't going to grow on decaying logs.

IDing just calls for a clear head, gotta do much more than just match pictures. Does the habitat, spore print, bruising properties, smell, and texture also match? Always know where you pick your mushroom, especially what kinda trees are around.
Click to expand...

Gymnopolis Spectabilis can grow on decaying logs.
 
thnx for all the help. i have decided that i will do reasearch more on the subject better safe than sorry
 
Abraxus said:
Gymnopolis Spectabilis can grow on decaying logs.
Click to expand...

Right, and psilocybes won't. I would be very suspicious about anything that looks like psilocybe and is growing on a log.
 
I think Abraxus is referring to psilocybin active species.....I thought that Gallerina Autumnalis has basically the same habitat as P. subaerignosa. I'll have to check my books...
 
You're right Willow. The exceptions are that galerina's have a rusty brown stem, have a veil (ring around the stem near the cap) and won't bruise blue. Also their spore print will be rusty dark brown as opposed to the purplish brown of a sub spore print.
 
Actaully the veil is what covers the spores from early sporulation. The ring is called the membranous annular (sp?). Gallerina autmnalis only has a partial veil, which breaks off to form the membranous annular, which in this case will have a brown spore dust on them. The habitat for gallerina autmnalis is can be logs, woodchips, mulch- all the same as p. subaerignosa. Anyway, once you've found a few psilocybes its hard to be mistaken....

The best way is to look at as many pictures of every part of the mushroom your hunting at every stage off growth, and then go for a look. After you realise how blue many will go (and the ones with the strongest bluing reaction are the safest and easiest for us amateurs to find) its hard not to see them. I wouldn't advise collecting every mushroom you see, and then sorting them as the chances of mixing up mushrooms is magnified and, for a beginner (which I would largely consider myself to be), many mushrooms can look the same.
 
I saw a really awesome youtube lecture on mushroom hunting in the pacific north west a while back from the guy in Seattle that wrote a few cultivation books. The lecture took place in Amsterdam, I can’t find it now or remember the guys’ name. If anyone knows the video I’m talking about can you post the link.
 
I really think that if you're unsure about the mushrooms you should find a source for them. Something grown in a controlled environment.

Its so easy to mis ID a mushroom.
 
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