Edible mushrooms of 2013 - photos, etc

[Zen Peddler]

Probably a little early but I thought Id start a thread where people can post picks of an edible mushroom they have found in the 2013 season (Autumn for most maybe Sept for Morels?) with a brief description of the location (Pinus radiata forest, Birch forest, etc).

This year up in the hills Im determined to find Chanterelles and Ill be spending a lot of time under stands of oak in the probably ridiculous hope that the cep has arrived in Victoria as well as in SA. Plus the usual locations for Saffrons, Birch boletes, Slipperies and some agaricus. I think Ive got a better location for Lepista nuda now as well.

Cheers !

[Pinion]

Nice idea, Zen. They certainly taste a lot better than the limited species found in supermarkets, plus there's nothing like a bit of fresh air and exercise!

Hope you find some chanterelles, just gotta watch out for the Omphalotus species.

When the season comes, I'm on a mission to find Boletus edulis. Never found them before, only slippery jacks, saffrons and good ol' agaricus.

Looking forward to seeing people's pictures in the near future!

[NSF]

SA is apparently where to find ceps (boletus edulis). I'll be inoculating some Pinus pinea and some chestnut seedlings with Boletus aereus once the weather cools down.

ZPBG if you want to head out for a hunt in the pines near marysville and we make a day trip of it then let me know. I'm keen.

Oh and native chanterelles grow on natives, well, that's where I've found them. They're tiny, elusive and infrequent too...bastards.

[Zen Peddler]

Marysville would be fun mate. I was intending to mainly hang about the eastern ranges but Ill send you a pm when we get close to the time (rather than being 41C!)

[NSF]

If you know of some nice southern slope pine plantations where we can hunt saffies and they're closer to home I'm happy to go to those instead.

[Zen Peddler]

Not only are their Chanterelles, but also horn of plenty (Craterellus cornucopioides) in Australia referred to locally (and incorrectly) as black chanterelles in Victoria.

[NSF]

Where the hell are the Craterellus? Someone get a print! They aren't mycorrhizal!

[seachangeau]

Craterellus in NSW WIngello state forest March 2012 found while searching for lactarius http://www.blueswami.com/craterellus_cornucopioides.html google is so clever!

http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:catalogueoflife.org:taxon:d6db9799-2dc5-11e0-98c6-2ce70255a436:col20110201 for the australian atlas reports

Edited February 15, 2013 by seachangeau

[NSF]

Fan-fucking-tastic find!

Nice write up too!

How did they taste? Did you happen to take some prints? Can I pretty please have one?

[Zen Peddler]

thanks for the great input guys - this is exactly the kind of data and info we need.

The old guy who gives me tips says that Horn of plenty (which he calls black Chanterelles) are pretty common up around Emerald/Cockatoo. Ill be definately on the case this May dont you worry!

[MikeyMagic]

Can anyone advise me on the edibility of Slippery Jacks Suillus luteus?

Ive noticed a few around in Brisbane lately.

They seem to have some symbiosis with Lilypilies.

I found two large ones found near an Acmena hemilampra

and found another today near a Syzygium leumanii

Edited February 28, 2013 by MikeyMagic

[seachangeau]

http://astrotas.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/534/ got to get up early to get them before the grubs , they should be peeled - they don't agree with everyone. there are different edible slippery jacks and poisonous confusables so go out with someone etc....

[Zen Peddler]

I found them a little hard on the guts and not particularly tasty myself. I much prefer saffrons, blewitts or birch boletes

[obtuse]

There is something about slipperies that turn me off, so slimy it feels nasty, seems like a bacterial wonderland.

And then there is the big slugs that like to burrow inside. yummm, not!

havent managed to try them yet lol

[Marcel]

I live for slipperies!
Slice them, peel them, dry them until they're cracker dry and store them well. Add to to stews and soups for earthy flavour. The smell of drying slipperies IS my childhood!

My first hunt of the season this weekend. I'm sleepless with excitement.

[Zen Peddler]

Well - the hills are alive. I found five sticky bun/slippery jacks so far. They were small and slug blown arleady. Ill post a pic later. Under pinus radiata.

[mutant]

NSF

Where the hell are the Craterellus? Someone get a print! They aren't mycorrhizal!

I am quite sure they are muchorhizical, but I could provide print theoretically , as I am in southern greece. I find tons.

I dont know how it behaves in oz, but here it loves oak and various quercus sp. , always more abundant in some altitude , say 800-100 meters.

Pine, f.e. , here is not good candidate for either Cantharellus or Boletus IME. But one can find Macrolepiotas, Agaricus, Lepista nuda and of course Lactarius+Suillus, which I dont fancy a lot, in pines.

As for the Suillus sp.[Xerocomus?] , that's what I assume you're referring to as slipperies, if you get the genus right, yes they are edible, but most are not very tasty, and yes I agree with the comment about peeling off the cap epidermis: if we're not picking a species we are sure about, and instead we pick some 'Sullius sp.' its a good idea to peel the cap epidermis off, cause some get an upset stomach.

What most people dont know, is that if you dry even the most tasteless Suillus, [cheers Marcel!] they employ a Boletus quality in their aroma, and at least they are tasty! But again, have in mind this about some species being a bit upseting for the stomach [aka liquid shitting].

But all in all, picking mushrooms without determining the exact species might be risky for a newbie, even though the known toxic boletales have usually pretty dramatic colours and flesh discolours to blue when cut. Still there are rare boleti in Leccinum and other genera that might be inedible, and in particular in exotic for me Australia.

Begin by understanding the pore mushrooms and what is the difference between Boletus , Xerocomus [now merged with Boletus but with distinct differences, f.e. big pores from pretty young age contrary to Boleti]] and Suillus. Xerocomus are pretty tasty but usually pretty slimey too, unless only young pristine specimens are picked for cooking, again drying is a good idea, but here we dont have the epidermis peeling and all, Xerocomi are well processed by most stomachs.

There are also Leccinum which are pretty rare where I am at, and usually reported not very tasty and other minor genera which are rarer. I have not tasted them, but once I found a parasitic mushroom fruiting FROM the leg of a Leccinum, which I thought was a Boletus at the time.

Note all these pore fungi fruit from the ground and are very different from those that fruit from trees {Polypores and others} and have much harder flesh.

Cheers!

PS: We found our first Morchellas [conica/elata] here today!! only a couple, very young, we should return a week from now.

PS2: Hey Zen P, Is Slippery Jack Xerocomus badius? This is considered pretty tasty, even though slimey, is pretty rare in greece, haven't found it. You should consider drying the larger specimens ;) Sounds like the smaller Xerocomus chrysenteron of which I find a lot and pick happily .

Edited April 4, 2013 by mutant

[gecko]

"....is Slippery Jack Xerocomus badius?"

Slipery jacks in Australia are Suillus luteus and Suillus granulatus.

both grow under Pinus spp.

I've also found Suillus lakei growing under Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in Southern Victoria (Aust.)

I'd like to try Xerocomus badius (syn. Boletus badius)...

never seen it or any Australian reference to it though.

Edited April 30, 2013 by gecko

[mutant]

hey thanks mate

we have Suillus bellinii here, and granulatus I think.

suillus sp. is supposed to be one of the first mycorhizical mushrooms to colonise a first planted pine planting or so they say

[Zen Peddler]

Sorry mutant i must have missed your message - as the above - its a Suillus species.

Its a weird season - either people are still picking all the milkies or they just arent about at the moment - just finding shit loads of slipperies, amanitas and subs.

[seachangeau]

hi , i thought i had posted my

. Has anyone else collected edible agarics that 'bleed'? Dr Gates had this to say about it last year " The 'rubescens' group of the genus Agaricus all stain red compared with the 'xanthodermati' group which stain yellow. Often when they are wet they behave a bit differently, i.e. the pigment can become more prevalent. We have Lepiota haemorrhagica but I don't know of Agaricus haemorrhagicus. Actually if it has brownish sclaes it sounds like the one I had on my front lawn in 2010-it was a rapid red bruiser." Notice she didn't exactly name it. Found lots of references in a book i bought this year 'all that the rain promises' on similar sounding north american species varying from 'presumed edible' to very tasty. Mine's a tasty one.

[obtuse]

Nice find.

brownish scales makes me think Agaricus silvaticus

I've never found any so im not sure.

brrrrrr cold.

Cheers.

[seachangeau]

yes waterboy agrees its a. sylvaticus. certainly looks more like it when it's mature. I've asked for help doing a KOH stain test and dried some bits to send off to the bot gardens if someone would care to ID it there. The rain also made the yellow stainers staining more prominent - i checked a big patch the same time and again later when it had stopped raining and noticed the difference. also found a ? brown birch bolete yesterday , uggly sopping wet things wringing wet like sponges - perhaps they stain a little green/blue more readily after this much rain. The mycelia at the base are really prominent. I have a chunk in the fridge hoping i can track down a wild birch seedling to pot it up with tomorrow.

[obtuse]

cool. glad to hear you are having some good finds.

:D

[worowa]

The Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra has a free ID service (plants and fungi)...I used to help process them when I worked there... Send them some photos, spore prints and details...they should get back to you with a positive ID within a week or two.

I've got a few patches of Birch Boletes south of Hobart...seemed to have stopped about a month ago, but heard reports of a Blackmans Bay patch still cropping.

I've had red bleeders from bags of Agaricus from mushroom farms-one or two from a bag at a time, their companions didn't bleed...I didn't eat them-had more than enough mushies, but I did wonder what was going on, an invader, or just a random mushie that accumulated something.