Hello Greg!
Friday May 10 1996 10:34, you wrote to ask:
 GW> I just started reading the 'eating mushrooms' thread, and was
 GW> wondering if someone might be able to give me a bit of help for
 GW> something I'd had a while ago...
 GW>  wild mushrooms for dinner. They were quite large, I'd say the tops
 GW> were 4-6 inches, and she fried them up like steaks.
 GW> These were absolutely incredible!  But I have no way now of finding
 GW> out what kind they were, or how to tell them for picking, or whether
 GW> they grow down here in the lower mainland at all.
You'll understand that your info is a little sketchy for identificaton 
purposes! :-))) Nevertheless, I'll hazard a couple of guesses.
1 If what you were served was a whole cap, (fried, as you said) and if they 
were relatively flat, (rather than being dome shaped etc,) then I would think 
they probably be the parasol mushroom. (Macro)lepiota procera. Or possibly 
the shaggy parasol (Macro)lepiota rhacodes.
2 If, on the other hand you had a slice taken from a round mushroom (a bit 
like taking a cut of steak off the whole) then you'll almost certainly have 
had the giant puffball - langermannia gigantea.
If you really liked it, I guess it was the first. The giant puffball is OK, 
but it isn't really anything to write home about. My Aunt Isabel loved them, 
but that was probably a) cos they were free and b) cos she was able to 
identify it without trouble.
GW> Any help would be great.
I can't give you ANY idea where in the US they grow, obviously, except to say 
that here, they grow in fields which sometimes have (or have had) cattle, ie 
in grassland, and probably uncultivated grassland at that. The saying here, 
is that when the coulemelle shows, it's the end of that flush of cepes. 
(Coulemelle is the french name for parasol mushroom).
Be extremely wary about picking the lepiota family.  Botanists give the two 
main edible members (and a couple of others) the different name of 
"Macrolepiota", but that's somewhat disputed. Some others still call them 
"Lepiota". the point is that although the two parasols grow large - I've got 
a photo of one larger than my mushrooming basket - about 12" or so in 
diameter, they can also grow relatively small, and that's where the risk 
lies. Some of the smaller members of the family - it IS possible to make a 
correct identification, but it isn't obvious at first sight - are lethally 
toxic. So be absolutely 100% sure that the mushroom that you _think_ you've 
picked is what you should have picked. But, as Michael says elsewhere, one 
should _always_ be 100% certain. And that isn't looking at them with the eye 
of faith either.
  The major identifying features are that it is a large mushroom, usually 
more or less solitary, standing up high above the grass with a long very 
fibrous brittle stem. The cap is flattish when mature, with a small boss at 
the centre. The cap surface is distinctively peeling back, or with striking 
scales and is white in the background, with a peeling brown skin or scales 
and is usually darker towards the boss.
 The gills are white and brittle, and the stalk has a twin ring which is 
sufficiently loose to allow it/them to slide up and down the stipe (This is 
important, as it distinguishes the right one from others).  Lastly, the stipe 
detaches from the cap relatively easily, leaving a "cup and ball" joint.
Frankly, I've not had much trouble either finding, nor identifying them, as 
there aren't many others whose stipes are longer than their caps.
Most important of all, if you _ever_ go picking mushrooms, which is great 
fun, and good exercise, make sure that you take a top class field guide, and 
go right through the full identification process as they recommend. Michael, 
or John Prather, to name but two, can give you the names of guides available 
in, and relevent to, the States. Take it with you, and USE it. Last piece of 
advice. If in doubt, don't eat it. Mushroom poisoning (the bad kind) takes a 
long time to show, and by time it has, there's no remedy. You die, after a 
relatively long and extremely unpleasant illness. I make no apology for 
quoting from my own guide.
"Phalloidian Syndrome. There are two consistent features: delayed onset of 
symptoms, from some hours up to 1 or 2 days after ingestion; and the gravity 
of the poisoning - which without quick treatment usually proves fatal. At 
first there is the delayed onset of a troublesome, indefinable discomfort. 
Then acute gastroenterits with vomiting, painful diarrhoea, foetid or bloody, 
sometimes for several days with profuse sweating, dehydtration and intense 
thirst. Periods of apparent recovery follow, in which the patient feels much 
better - imagines himself cured. but this is illusory: the earlier symptoms 
reappear, with hypothermia, shivering, and a corpse-like pallor (the clinical 
picture of cholera) followed by prostration, coma and death.
Howver, don't let this stop you picking and eating good mushrooms. Just let 
it make you determined NEVER to get it wrong :-))
All the Best
Ian
--- GoldED 2.50.A0918 UNREG
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