Clarkeinda trachodes (Berk.) Singer, 1951 (syn: Agaricus trachodes Berk., 1847; Chitoniella trachodes (Berk.) Petch, 1909; Fungus trachodes (Berk.) Kuntze, 1898);

 

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Please identify this Toadstool photographed at my farm at Shahapur last weekend (28.10.10). It measured more than 5 inches in diameter.

Nice picture set of larger mushroom kinds, Am yet to see mushrooms of that size. Toad stool are known to be poisonous and inedible, As always, I wonder, how do farmers learn/test  if a wild  mushroom is edible or not. 
1. One practice I heard, being followed by villagers in Mysore dist.
Cook mushrooms with Brinjal. If the brinjal turns black its inedible. [To be validated]
2. small mushrooms turned blue are inedible
3. Mushrooms growing under certain known trees like saalu dhoopa are consider edible. 
4. The milk (latex) of certain  trees are known to burn the skin. If mushrooms  grow under such trees they are considered inedible. 
Each family in Agumbe pick go mushrooming during the season  and pick upto 3 gunny bags of edible mushrooms in the forests. They then have to consume within 2 days. 


Beautiful pictures….TOADSTOOL, I have never heard that name before….


I think this is Amanita pantherina commonly known as ‘panther mushroom”. This is a toxic species. The colour of the cap may vary from dark brown to nearly yellow in colour with small white to creamish warts on the upper-surface of the cap. Other two distinguishing points are volva is rolled like a collar at the base and the stipe is narrowing at the apex and broad at the base. All the character can be observer from your photos. The toxin fond in this mushroom is Muscarine.


Thanks … for the id and the long and detailed explanation. Rest assured I had no intention of eating it !  

My thanks also to … for their inputs.  

As far as I remember – fungii that bear a cap & a stalk are called ‘mushrooms’. Poisonous mushrooms are called ‘Toadstools’.  


Toadstool is the common name for an inedible or poisonous mushrooms in some countries.  Mushroom experts/communities discourage the usage of this particular word as there is no scientific classification/description.
This means – a wild mushroom or a wild toadstool could be poisonous.

Mushroom is a very broad term used to describe macroscopic sporulating bodies belonging to higher group of fungi i.e Basidiomycota and Ascomycota, though the members from both the phylum doen’t essentially have such fruit bodies. Members from Basidiomycota are known to have the cap (pileus) and stalk ( stipe) but there are many exception such as genus Auricularia , Tremella e.tc which lacks caps and stalk. Members from Ascomycota never have stalk and cap. Kindly take a look at the links below……… 

…, thanks for the info. In Kerala I have seen mushrooms growing under Tamarind Trees.  Are they edible?

We used to eat a lot of fleshy fungi (not to say just mushrooms) in childhood days collected from woods especially after a thunderburst when they come out of ground, much before we started going to College, and trust me never fell ill. May be we could identify edible fungi which we called Kan dolle (looked like and had texture of ear- now as botanist we know as Sarcosphaera), Guchhi (Morchella esculenta) and Khumb (Agaricus bisporus). On one occasion I happen to collect one button mushroom that was large enough to provide one cup full of cooked vegetable.


Mushrooms are known to form a symbiotic relationship with certain tree roots.
I have seen only green grass growing under tamarind trees after rains. 
A local true mushroom expert should definitely help on most of the edible kinds of your region. The edible  knowledge is passed on from generations and they know the harmful/harmless kinds well and tried many times. 
Alternate, get the mushroom identified first  by mushroom communities/research labs/horticulture dept. know the chemicals and learn if it can be devoured.

I accept that wild mushroom are best to taste as I do taste then regularly out here. but identifying mushrooms are skills by itself. I know many people who may not have degrees like us but are master in this. I admire there knowledge, but i never take this risk.


i think it is amanita sps if in matured it become red or orange yellow


Yes …, I enjoy quite a few varieties of mushrooms. The safest way I find is to ask the tribals. They eat many more varieties than the other local people who have migrated from other areas. I have enjoyed so many mushrooms that are considered non edible by most of the other local people and nothing has happened to me.



References:

Comments

  1. Dr. Preetha. P. S Article Author

    Sir,
    We have very advanced technologies today. But the identification of mushrooms remained mystery even today. It’s difficult for mushroom taxonomists to identity a field mushroom properly.So it’s important to develop some technology to identity poisonous and nonpoisonous mushroom rather than assumptions.

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