Welcome to Gaia! ::

Wild Mushroom Identification Warning


There is NO way to identify a mushroom based solely on a photo or even a written description. Identifying mushrooms is a complex process and it's easy to make mistakes. There are many varieties of both edible and psychoactive mushrooms which have poisonous look-alikes. Even an expert can be fooled by the outward appearance of these deadly look-alikes.

Unless you can either explore with a mycologist or knowledgeable and seasoned mushroom hunter, or take the time to learn the careful process of mushroom identification yourself through reading books and preferably joining a mycological society...we would strongly recommend not eating mushrooms you pick yourself.

Learning to identify mushrooms isn't difficult in and of itself, but it takes training. Because the down-side of eating a poisonous mushroom is so great...one needs to be extraordinarily careful.

Eating mushrooms you pick is a very bad idea IMO.

Too many of the psycoactive shrooms look like any other handful of shrooms.

Most bruise purple, grow the same, have the same looks.

Also, many shrooms that are psycoactive are also simply poisonous.
The only way you can eat them is when they are cooked just right and just long enough.
Unless you really know what you are doing, there is a good chance you will die of liver failure.

And, fyi, liver failure is painful and messy. It deffinitly sucks a**.