fun guy

[rdak]

does anyone know of web pages where you can identify wild fungi? have googled a bit but cannot find anything.
thanks

[rdak]

[SueT]

Hi, try www.first-nature.com they have fungi on their website  ;D

[mysticmog]

http://www.mycolog.com is v good, so is http://www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/ (bit academic though) - Tenuse if your woman for fun guy though...

[Tenuse]

I've found that the books are better. Roger Phillips has a Mushrooms and Fungi one which is very comprehensive and covers mainly European fungi, a lot of the sites on the web have dodgy photography and are US-based.

Better yet do an adult education class or look in the local paper for "fungi forays", nothing like going with an expert to figure out what's what.

Ten x

[anna]

These people have good courses

http://www.field-studies-council.org/

[rdak]

thanks for those links. Went for a walk in the woods at the weekend and set myself the task of finding some wild fungi. Found a small mushroom and wanted to see if I could identify it.

Ten- it was small, at the base of a tree, very pale yellow, on a stalk, the underside of the cap had gills and the cap..instead of being the traditional domed shape was  quite flat, with the outside edges being curled upwards. The middle of the cap was darker than the rest. Any idea what it could be or is it too difficult to tell from that description?! thanks

[rdak]

ah- think I found it. think it's a young Stinking Parasol!!

http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/id_guide/agaricaceae/lepiota_cristata.htm

poisonous! :-X

[budgiebreeder]

What an interesting web-site Anna .i have sent for the brochure.Have you been on any of the courses?

[Tenuse]

Don't forget that lots of mushrooms change their shape as they age - they might start off domed, then flatten out as they get old. (And "old" might mean a couple of days only.)

There are squidillions of "little brown mushrooms" that are nigh-on impossible to indentify without a microscope!

Many of them change colour as they age, or when they are wet, some are multi-coloured ie darker at the top and light around the edges.

The more you find out about them the more you realise how many there are!! It's important for identification to check what kind of trees they are growing under as well, some are symbiotically linked to tree roots.

If you want to find out how fabulous they are try taking a spore print (it's very useful for identification) - get a reasonably fresh mushroom, put it gill side down on half white, half black paper so that half of it is on each colour, then put a tub over to keep the moisture in. The mushroom will drop its spores (hopefully) and they are an incredible range of colours!

I will stop now as I could go on forever.

Ten x