There is a good reason why mushroom experts warn about picking mushrooms that aren’t 100% identifiable. It’s way too easy to pick up an imposter without even realizing it.
One moment, you find a “familiar-looking” mushroom and bend over to pick it up. Next thing you know, you’re in the emergency room requiring an immediate transplant because the mushroom you took a few bites off just destroyed your liver.
Plants allow you to know what kind of toxins they’re packing even from a simple touch. Not so for mushrooms, oh no. You can rub that Death Cap all over your face, and you’ll be fine. As far as mushrooms are concerned, touching them with your bare hands will lead to no ill-effects.
Ingesting them, on the other hand, is a different story. You won’t really feel anything at first. Maybe a little nausea and a stomachache in a few hours, something that doesn’t seem alarming at first. The pain might go away after a while, but it will most certainly return stronger than ever, and by that point, it will be too late for you. The mushroom’s toxins have already destroyed your kidneys or your liver, or even both! By that point, you’re highly likely to die very soon. Not really a nice way to go out.
With all that said, let’s take a look at some of these edible wannabes to help you identify which mushrooms you should stay far away from.
False Morels
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What people confuse them with: True Morels
How to tell the difference: True to their name, false morels appear like true morels at a glance from afar, but once you poke into its characteristics a little bit, you’ll realize that they have a lot of differences.
One of its telling features is its head. While true morels have a more honeycomb-like and uniform cap structure, false morels in comparison have a wrinkly or brain-like cap structure.
You can also tell the two apart by checking if the cap is attached directly to the stem: The true morel will have the stem attach to the bottom part of the cap. The false morel will extend upwards to the top of the cap. This might sometimes not be too obvious as the false morel will have their cap as “hanging” like an umbrella.
Finally, the best way to guarantee your pickings is to slice open the mushroom lengthwise. True morels are completely hollow on the inside (which is why the stem is attached to the bottom of the cap). False morels will usually have some kind of cotton-like substance inside of it.
Jack-o’-lantern
What people confuse them with: Chanterelles
How to tell the difference: It won’t take too long to distinguish a Chanterelle from a jack-o’-lantern, especially for the more experienced mushroom hunters.
The best way to tell is by looking at the gills (the ridges under a mushroom cap). A chanterelle will have ‘false gills’, making the underside look wrinkly with forks. Jack-o’-lanterns, on the other hand, have ‘true gills’, making them look non-forked, and more knife-shaped. Another common edible mushroom with ‘true gills’ is the button mushroom.
Chanterelles are also more yellowish in color, while jack-o’-lanterns look more orange.
Death Cap
What people confuse them with: Straw Mushroom, Caesar’s Mushroom
How to tell the difference: Death caps look eerily similar to straw mushrooms. They both have a volva at the base of the stem, and the gills do not reach the stem.
However, there are still a few key differences to identify the death cap.
For one, its gills are color white, compared to the straw mushroom’s pinkish white.
Death caps also have a greenish-yellow cap, while straw mushrooms will have a brown to grayish white cap.
If you’re willing to smell them (They’re harmless unless they get into your stomach), death caps are unique to other mushrooms in that they have a slight odor of ammonia. If the mushroom smells like your household cleaning products, it’s likely a death cap.
You can find a lot of them in temperate, oak-filled forests.
Destroying Angels
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What people confuse them with: Meadow Mushroom, Horse Mushroom, Button Mushroom, Puffballs
How to tell the difference: Related to the death cap, its mature stage is telling, thanks to its pure white color. Like the death cap, its gills are also white. Comparatively, meadow mushrooms have pink gills that turn brown. Destroying angels also have a ring on its upper stalk.
Its immature stage is mostly where the confusion comes from. In the future sprouting place of the mushroom, a white egg-like sac lies in wait. This can easily be confused with tiny button mushrooms or puffballs, as the lack of open caps and visible gills makes it tough to identify.
Finishing off
Many poisonous lookalikes exist in the world, but the ones mentioned in this article are the most common ones being mistaken for an edible mushroom.
As mentioned earlier above, it’s far too easy to pick a lookalike mushroom, especially when weather and light conditions aren’t optimal. Some are easy to spot, while others require more ample observation to ensure that you don’t accidentally poison yourself.
Even consuming a single cap for some of the mushrooms mentioned here can be fatal, which is why it is important to always be 100% sure of the mushroom that you are picking. There is absolutely no room for error, and it is a mistake many mushroom hunters make only once.
If you have even the slightest doubt that the mushroom you picked might not be what it seems like, throw it away. It’s not worth risking your life, your liver, and your kidneys over.