jonathan

Well, here in Victoria I tried a new place a couple of weeks ago after rain..thought it would be too early but was ok....but ironically not much around now. Should be perfect if there was rain...just too dry. Anyway, the Leccinum, Macroleopiota, and Oudemansiella all fried up nicely. Oh, and the Notwotuthinkus? Check out _3 where you can see the rusty cap from being under another cap..rusty brown spores not purple black! So some sort of Cortinarius but not too sure which and who knows whether it could be a liver killer or not. When I first saw the Leccinum I wondered if I had found a Cep! Note these are not identified through spores, just macro features so are just my own thoughts.

HI Mr Blasty Hard to tell from those pics. A few more views would help (gill shape/type, size, look when old, gill colour, spore print etc). It almost looks as though the stem ("stipe") is translucent? If so, could be some sort of Mycena species.

They look to me a bit like Slippery Jacks (Suillus luteus) and the cap usually slimy when it is wet. Edible but I still seek the best recipe and have always found them a little disappointing. Peel off skin and remove sponge and try to prepare dry as they soak up water.

I would probably say they are Suillus luteus (slippery jacks), that people insist on eating but I find hard to enjoy. You peel the skin and remove sponge and then work out some kind of recipe. Keep water away - they go soggy, and so can be quite mushy when found in wet ground. They can often be found here in Oz together with Amanita muscaria (in your pic), Lactarius deliciosus, Tricholoma fracticum, and Tricholoma terreum. The latter are delicious when cooked in the normal way.

hmmmm.......how good are these? 4 days of pickling and now looking for the best recipe/use

Top right could be what I used to know as Marasmius oreades. Nice smell of mild almond/marzipan and nice to fry up or dry and use as spice. But make sure id it first. Common around suburbs/nature strips/fields in fairy rings. BTW, today I found a nice crop of pine mushrooms. Hopefully the pic uploaded ok. Now to pickle them with dill and juniper berries

Are you sure Galerina marginata or could this be Galerina patagonica? Anyway, regardless, a good visual on why one needs to be careful.

Well, that is very honest of mutant. I used to feel the same until I found this brilliant recipe involving juniper berries and dill: Google this to get to the url Polish Salter Mushrooms - Hunter Angler Gardener Cook The only drawback is how salty they are after pickling so if someone tries this recipe and comes up with a solution (not involving vinegar if possible) I am all ears

The ones on the left do look a bit like Phlebopus marginatus, though usually associated with Eucalypts. Actually, yesterday I just found what I think is P.m. near the Grampians. Cut in half the flesh was yellow and not the rapid blue bruising one can see in other Australian boletes.

Yes, good point. In this case the offending compounds seem to be saponins, which are more associated with "soap-like" toxicity and generally reversible I believe, but not that I have any proof in this instance. I would be interested to know what sort of compounds in Paxillus involutus etc are responsible for the cumulative effects. This is certainly scary. Maybe very tight binding cyclic peptides? Does anyone know?

OK - New to this. Hope it all works. Firstly, attached are pics of Cortinarius australiensis (dry Eucalyptus sclerophyll near Macedon, not edible and smells the same..do not eat), Tricholoma terreum (under Pine trees in Macedon, smells lovely and edible historically but controversial....see my other post), Tricholoma fracticum (under same pine trees in Macedon, took a bit to id...thanks Virgil; smells inedible and is the same...do not eat) and last but not least, a heap of nice Leucoagaricus naucinus (= L. leucothites; the Smooth Lepiota; photos not here but available on web and typical), also smelling classically inedible (hint of sickly sweet) and suggested to be similarly so. Of course odour means nothing but I just comment accordingly.

See attached file for comments on the paper re toxicity of T. terreum (I couldn't paste text in so had to capture as image)