This afternoon I got to explore the Coonamessett Reservation in Falmouth with a knowledgeable mushroom hunter. Although I love foraging for wild edibles, normally I’m fairly wary when it comes to mushrooms, since many species can have some nasty effects ranging from gastro-intestinal distress to death. So it was exciting to have an expert to point out which were edible, which weren’t, and fun facts about them both. (Disclaimer: If you have any doubts whatsoever about your identification of a wild mushroom, don’t eat it!)

We encountered three species of edible mushroom:

1. Hen of the woods (Grifola frondosa)

Hen of the woods, also known as Maitake, is one of the best known edible wild mushrooms. It’s widely variable in color, from pure white to tan to brown to gray. The cluster we found today was on the brown to gray side, with darker colors towards the edge of each frond, and pure white undersides. This mushroom grows in large overlapping fronds, each between 0.5 and 4 inches across, arranged in dense clusters. The entire fruiting body can be as big as several feet across. Grifola frondosa is a polypore, which is a mushroom that disperses its spores from pores as opposed to gills. Hen of the woods are one of many saprophytic mushrooms, meaning they are decomposers of woody matter.

2. Leccinum (a variety of Bolete)

There are many types of boletes around (we saw many on our walk today), but one particular type, known as Leccinums, are easily distinguished from the rest due to the black scabers (small, rigid projections) on their stalks, which give them a rough texture. Identifying the particular species of Leccinum you are looking at, however, is less simple.   All species of Leccinum are generally considered edible, but there have been recent accounts of poisoning associated with the orange- and red-capped varieties. Lucky for us, the ones we found had nice tan caps. Like the hen of the woods, Leccinum also lack gills. Instead you’ll find tubes and pores on the underside of the cap.   Interestingly, if you cut or break the cap in half, the newly exposed flesh will begin to change color, eventually turning almost blue.

3. Laccaria laccata

Commonly known as the deceiver because of its variable morphology. Laccaria lacacata is a relatively small mushroom, with a cap up to 2.5 inches in diameter, and a stipe approximately 2-4 inches high and up to 0/5 inches wide. The cap is convex when young and later flattens or even becomes depressed in the center. Its color is variable and can be various shades of salmon pink, brick-red, or shades of orange or brown. Its color tends to be duller and paler when dry. L. laccata is mycorrhizal with several types of trees, including members of the family Pinaceae (Pines), which were the dominant trees where we found these mushrooms today. L. laccata are mycorrhizal mushrooms, which means they forming a symbiotic partnership with trees (the fungi’s mycelium carries distant nutrients and moisture to the host

plant’s roots, which the fungi receive sugars secreted by the plant).

Other non-edible mushrooms:

We also found a number of other interesting, but definitely not edible mushrooms along the way. Below are two species from the genus Amanita, which contains some of the most toxic mushrooms in the world, and is responsible for the majority of the fatalities resulting from mushroom poisoning. Identifying a mushroom as part of the genus Amanita will require you to find the base of the stalk. Amanita mushrooms have a distinctive bulbous shape to their base. Another characteristic common to many species within the Amanita genus is a ring part way up the stalk, that remains from the partial veil, a membrane that covers the spore-producing surface of the mushroom while it is developing. Finally, many Amanita species (such as the two pictured below), have “warts” on their cap. These “warts” are actually remaining pieces of tissue resulting from the deterioration of a universal veil, which enclosed the entire button mushroom while it was developing, similar to the partial veil, which covered the spore-producing surface.