[limpet chicken]

I just wonder, are there any other amateur mycologists on the forums here apart from me?

I went picking not long ago, picked up 2.5 kilos of Amanita Muscaria (the fly agaric), which contains some interesting isoxazole alkaloids with GABAergic trance-inducing effects, a pound of the delicious honey fungus (Amillaria Mellea), and some bay boletus and cep/porcini mushrooms.

Just went out today to buy some vermiculite for a culture of Psilocybe Cyanescens I am working on and what did I find on the woodchips near the store...P.Cyanescens, only the most potent Psilocybe species on my side of the atlantic ocean, and one of my favourites to boot

Anyone else here go foraging for mushrooms at all?

[Jiro]

I have.... watch out for they can turn into a pile black mushy goop with maggots crawling out of them....

[limpet chicken]

Yeah, Agaricus,followed by certain Boletus species are some of the worst for being maggoty, best to cut edible species through before cooking.

Found these Psilocybe Cyanescens today in some woodchips, these lil buggers are probably the most potent Psilocybe in Great Britain, 15 1cm caps had me tripping hard not long ago

[limpet chicken]

This is Agaricus Macrosporus, a very delicious edible species, the flesh is firm and meaty and chewy like a shiitake, and very fragrant and mushroomy tasting.

The caps grow up to a maximum of about 18 inches, and are usually a few inch thick and very firm.

I had this one fried, then put on a mozzarella coated toasted bagette, topped off with a full block of melted mozarella cheese

[constant thinker]

Intresting hobby.

Been on any bad "trips"?

[limpet chicken]

Nope, all my latest trips have been fantastic

[jdurg]

I'm not a big fan of the big, 'beefy' mushrooms as much as I am of the smaller, finely chopped shrooms.  For some reason, the texture of the larger mushrooms is just unappealing to me.  I like the subtle, smooth flavors and aromas of the smaller varities.

As for the "OTHER" types of mushrooms, it's been a long, long, long time for me.  Used to enjoy them a bunch, but my mental state lately has been VERY unbalanced so I think any use of them would not be healthy for me or the people around me.  (Not sure why I've been mentally a wreck, but it's been pretty nasty for a few months now.   )

[Donaldson Tan]

the last mushroom is really making me hungry.

I been fantasizing having that mushroom fried on a hot plate with teriyaki sauce.

[wereworm73]

Most of the mushrooms I find are Agaricus, Lepiota, Coprinus & Conocybe species.  Unfortunately, Agaricus californicus & Chlorophyllum molybdites are very common in my area and those are hard to distinguish from edible species.  In the fall, I'll see lots of Sulfur Shelf fungi growing on carob trees, and in the early spring, I get a lot of small puffballs (Bovista sp., I think) & earthstars on my lawn.  One time I found some fiery orange Naematoloma aurantiaca mushrooms growing in some wood chips, but their edibility is unknown.

Corts are my favorite because they come in such a wide variety of colors, textures & sizes, and the fact some of them are deadly adds to their mystique.  I wouldn't eat any, though.

[Jamison]

Truffles.... XD

[limpet chicken]

The Laetiporus Sulphureus make good eating, so long as they aren't growing on toxic substrates (iv'e seen them growing on yew trees for instance) and you get the buggers while they are young and fleshy.

And your right about the corts, they are about the only genus of fungi I won't eat, although its only the subgenus Dermocybe, seemingly, that pack the characteristic slow-acting nephrotoxin orellanin, never seen C.Orellanus itself here in the UK, but have seen C.Spesiocissimus once, I pity the poor prick who mistakes one of either of them for a chanterelle (I never did get how people could get that stupid)

[wereworm73]

I read that the anthroquinones in Dermocybes are gastrointestinal irritants and make the mushrooms inedible or mildly poisonous, if they don't have other toxins in them already. 

Do you get C. infractus in your area?  I heard it contains beta-carbolines and might be hallucinogenic (unusual for a cort).

People are actually confusing C. speciosissimus with chanterelles?!  Wow, that's just amazing.  I don't understand how someone mix up a tawny-brown mushroom with well-defined, rusty brown gills with a bright yellow, funnel-shaped fungus with wrinkles instead of gills.

[limpet chicken]

Wereworm, thanks for that info, I have never heard of beta-carboline alkaloids being found in corts, or for that matter, any fungi at all, although beta-carbolines generally aren't very psychedelic per se, but many act as monoamine oxidase inhibitors, inhibiting breakdown of tryptamines, from say, Psilocybe/Gymnopilus/Pluteus etc.  or Amanita Citrina, although bufotenine is hardly somethine I would wish to experience in an uncontrollable, oral dose, let alone potentiated by a b-carboline, as its fairly toxic, increasingly so orally, and in my experience with it  (as freebase) acted as a fairly potent vasopressor.


Heh, come june-july, I'l be out on the meadows again, as Psilocybe Semilanceata start popping up over in the UK about then, and the fly agarics not long after, although they really are the worst thing in the world to dry, I've had A.muscaria refuse to dry after a weeks storage over P2O5, obstinate little buggers

And yeah, apparently a lot of people have died from mistaking C.Speciosissimus for chanterelles, I don't understand how someone could make some of the mistakes they do, mistaking white amatoxin containing Amanita species like A.Virosa, A.Verna and A.Phalloides var. Alba for edible Calocybe/tricholoma species, it happens, seemingly,  then again, some people are born to take themselves out of the gene pool

[limpet chicken]

Hm, seemingly there are traces of similar bipyridine compounds to orellanine in C.Infractus, so bioassay is out, although I did manage to track down the names of the 3-carbolines in question, infractine, 6-hydroxyinfractine and infractopicrine, and I'm looking up the structures now, I have read they are fairly similar to harmine/harmaline, and I have a small sample of harmaline laying around somewhere, so perhaps a little chemical tinkering might be in order

About the only corts I would ever consider eating, are C.Violaceus, and Leucocortinarius bulbiger, although the latter is quite rare here.

[constant thinker]

then again, some people are born to take themselves out of the gene pool

Amazingly though some people who definately should have been taken out manage to survive and reproduce thanks to modern medicine. A weak link in evolution.