Mushrooms 101: Identification and Anatomy - Part 1

oh did you get that welcome to season three of yellow eleanor we are here in the woods it's springtime nope i don't like that zach i wanted to start season three off with a pine cone apparently actually it's a douglas fir cone it's not a morale this is a false morel i wanted to start season three off with some of the most basic principles that we need to understand to identify mushrooms and forage for mushrooms so today's episode is all going to be about what is mushroom and what is its anatomy and how do you go through identification process so as we're going to talk about today let's get started so what are mushrooms anyhow and what's the difference between a mushroom and a fungus so mushrooms they are the beautiful lumpy bumpy wonderful things that we go and look for they are the fruiting bodies of the fungus so the fungus is the entire organism so there's more to a fungus than just a mushroom it's kind of like comparing a tree to its fruit right so you have the tree but the tree has many parts to it the reproductive part of the tree is the fruit and the reproductive part of a fungus is a mushroom so underneath the ground within the wood everywhere in the forest even on our bodies there's fungus there's fungus everywhere that phrase the fungus among us is pretty accurate so the fungus it's living it's growing it's expanding and when the time is right it decides to produce mushrooms now not all fungus produce mushrooms okay you have bread molds you have toe fungus they don't produce mushrooms they have other ways of reproducing but for those that do produce mushrooms these are the fruiting bodies this is the fruit of the fungus so to kind of encapsulate that all mushrooms are fungus but i'll not all fungus produce mushrooms so hopefully that helps you understand the difference between a mushroom and a fungus and i think it's important to note that a fungus is not a plant it's not an animal it's its own thing so the kingdom fungi is its own thing in 1969 though is kind of when it became its own kingdom before that was categorized as a plant a non-flowering plant but in 1969 robert whittaker wrote a paper that kind of established and re-categorized how he thought organisms should be categorized with each other and fungus became its own kingdom do you know what else happened in 1969 i'll show you sorry if that messes with the mic the moon landing over here the moon landing 1969. can you think about that and compare that there was the science to get a rocket ship in a man walking on the moon and yet mushrooms and fungus which are literally all around us were still considered non-flowering plants so this means that just 50 years ago that this was kind of well accepted in the scientific community mycology the city of mushrooms is a very young science so some of this seems a little above your head there's kind of a reason why a lot of this isn't fleshed out yet but now we're going to get into the mushroom itself and how to idea and what are its parts so let's go so here is a mushroom most of you can probably recognize that that is the mushroom the first part that i want to talk about in the mushroom actually has to do with pieces of tissue that protect the mushroom so there are two types of veils that a mushroom might have one is the universal veil and the other is the partial veil now the universal veil is a veil that covers the entire mushroom when it's young and sometimes as the mushroom is emerging it can kind of look like a little egg coming out of the ground that mushroom merges the mushroom stretches the veil stretches the mushroom matures all the way and that veil breaks when the veil breaks it can leave tissue on the cap and it can leave tissue at the base of the stem it might not leave much tissue on one or the other but those are the two places you are going to need to look on your mushroom to figure out did this mushroom have a universal veil or not because not all mushrooms have universal veils but it is an important identification characteristic that you need to pay attention to so sometimes the universal veil might be really thick as in this photo right here you can tell that this mushroom universal veil has very thick tissue and so as the mushroom emerges from it it actually doesn't leave much residue actually nothing at all on the cap but it leaves a very nice lovely cup at the base of the stem and so that's just the style that it has and you're going to have to make sure you check the cap in the stem look for evidence then you're going to have mushrooms that have very thin or sticky universal veils and they might leave a lot more evidence on the cap such as with this mushroom this is your classic amanita muscaria mushroom all right the mario mushroom alice in wonderland mushroom yes they're real they're really not red mushrooms with white polka dots on the actual flesh what they are is they're red mushrooms that have leftover bits of universal veil on the cap so this mushroom here if you were to rub your hand across the top of it you can actually remove those spots or those warts and you can tell in this photo here that the mushroom on the right grew up faster than the one on the left and as it pushed up against that other mushroom that friction caused those warts to fall off and it has a little empty patch on it so on this mushroom you can see these are pretty well defined warts on the top of the cap however with a tissue like this that's a little more thin and sticky it might not leave as much evidence at the base of the stem what you're going to need to look for sometimes instead of a nice little cup is just a little bit of tissue maybe hanging off the edge of the the stem or you're going to see something that's called bathtub rings where it's just kind of tiny rings of tissue right at the base of the stem some people like to compare it to a sock that's fallen around the ankles and kind of has rolls at the very bottom and this photo here is kind of hard to see but i want to use it as an example to show you that sometimes that evidence those little bathtub rings are so minimal that you really do have to look close however with this mushroom you do see that it has plenty of warts up top so you see the evidence of that universal veil so there we have the universal veil it can leave stuff on the top that are little warts little patches sometimes the patches are big and chunky sometimes it can be a single patch kind of like a pancake or it might leave nothing on the cap the universal veil can also leave a cup of tissue at the bottom it can be called a cup a vulva or a sack or different names for it or it can leave rolls those bathtub rings at the base of the stem so that's the universal veil the other veil is a partial veil now the partial veil it goes underneath the mushroom cap and it's kind of like a protective layer it's protecting the space underneath the mushroom cap where those spores are produced so it's kind of like protecting the mushroom for it to mature get the spores mature and it breaks away as the mushroom's growing so you can see in this photo example here one has a fully intact partial veil the other one it's broken away and as it's broken away you see that it leaves a little ring or skirt on that stem so again as with the universal veil not all mushrooms are going to have a partial veil sometimes they do sometimes they don't but it's your job to kind of decipher the clues to see does it or did it ever have a partial veil and again it might have a really thick and obvious piece of tissue that is that partial veil and so it leaves a really beautiful maybe long flowing skirt maybe a nice little mini skirt on the stem but sometimes it might be a really thin or sticky partial veil and as it breaks away that tissue doesn't stick to the stem as well and it more or less just leaves bits of tufts of flesh little bits of tissue around the stem and that is called a ring zone where it's not a full skirt but you can see there's evidence that there was a ring there there was a partial veil there and there's just a ring zone now there's one partial veil in particular you should become familiar with it's called a cortina cortina means curtain and a cortina is really thin fibrous almost cobweb like partial veil you can see in the photo here how it does look like a cobweb so this is the protective layer under there and then as it breaks away it doesn't leave much evidence at all it really just leaves like you have to look super close just like a little bit of fuzz around it um so that again is a ring zone um but the cortina is found especially on the courtinarius species of mushrooms so if you notice that your mushroom has a cortina partial veil you can all of a sudden pretty much guarantee that your mushroom is going to be in the cortinarius genus little clues there as you're trying to piece things together so we have the universal veil and we have the partial veil they leave evidence in different areas they leave evidence on the cap on the bottom of the stem and possibly on the stem as a ring got it back to the basic mushroom now let's start at the top with a cap most of you probably already know that's the cap of the mushroom okay what more is there to know other than this is the cap a lot there's a lot of things you need to notice as many details as possible about the cap of the mushroom all right i mean general texture and color are great but here are some other things to look out for first the very edge of the cap is called the margin you're going to hear this phrase as you're looking up identification stuff or reading in literature the margin of the cap sometimes has some important or interesting things on it so you want to know the edge of the cap is the margin all right another thing to look out for is striations so here in this photo you can see along the margin of the cap there are some striations striations are vertical lines that kind of go up and down on the cap of the mushroom generally the margin of the cap is where you can see these most predominantly again not all mushrooms are going to have striations but you need to check does your mushroom have it or do they not another thing is called zonation so if a mushroom cap is zonate instead of having vertical lines like striations it's going to have concentric rings so think bullseye here in this photo you can see with this lactaria species how their kind of zones going out and growing bigger sometimes donation in a mushroom cap can be just like this where it's just like color variations sometimes it can be a textural difference as well so for example the turkey tail mushroom there's color zones and there's also textural zones where some of those zones are smooth and some of them are fuzzy but all in all you see how zonation looks on the cap so it's another thing to look out for another feature are scales scales are when the flesh of the mushroom cap kind of peel up it's kind of gross but i like to compare this to like when your cuticles peel back on your fingers it's still the flush of your finger but it's pulling up this is kind of what's happening on the cap of some mushrooms you see here in this turbonella species the scales are really obvious you can see that flesh pulling up from the top of the cap here in the chlorophyllum species they're not as predominant but you can still see them really well a little harder to see is in this foliota species here because of age and weathering the scales don't stand out as much but that's what's going on in this mushroom as well so similarly to that are warts in patches now we already talked about the universal veil right so the universal veil leaves evidence on the cap of a mushroom warts and patches are very different than scales because it is a separate piece of tissue that is resting on top of the mushroom cap not the mushroom flesh itself see the difference all right we already talked about warts and patches enough that's another thing to look out for when you're looking at your mushroom cap okay that'll give you a lot more things to try and look for when you're looking at the cap of a mushroom again like i said color and texture even the feel of it on your skin sometimes a mushroom can feel somewhat dry or wrinkled or look at this photo here you don't even have to touch that to know that thing is going to be very sticky right or vicid if you want to be more technical and how to say that so just pay attention to the details does the mushroom cap kind of wave does it have lobes is it perfectly circular all those kinds of things pay attention to the details that's what i'm going to say 100 times today but now let's move on to underneath the cap what is going on underneath the cap of a mushroom so under the cap of a mushroom is where the spore bearing surfaces reside underneath that cap that's where the powerhouse kind of the mushroom is right so the mushrooms they're the fruiting bodies of a fungus they're the reproductive structures but this is where it happens under the cap there are different structures underneath the cap that produce the spores and release the spores so mushrooms reproduce by spore instead of seed as with a plant the most common spore bearing surface that you're going to find are gills and a lot of you are probably already familiar with that term here are some examples of some gills gills are very thin blade like they go deep they're very symmetrical they're kind of like pages in a book right and it's on the outer surface of these gills where the spores are produced and released from so gills you're going to have to again pay attention to the detailed sid gills and i know gills can be really small but look closely and you're going to see some interesting details pay attention to the color of the gills are the gills the same color as the rest of the mushroom or are they different are the gills themselves entirely the same color look very closely at this photo do you see at the very edge or the margin of the gill that it is pigmented darker than the rest of the gill that means that these gills are marginated so some mushrooms are going to have marginal gills all right it's a detail you have to look very close to see most mushrooms are going to have very smooth edged gills like a sharp bladed knife well there's also serrated knifes right so there's actually also serrated gills as well sometimes the serrations are going to be very obvious like this mushroom right here other times it's going to be a little more subtle in this example right here so check the edges of your gills are they marginate are they serrated are they smooth then you're also going to want to check how do your mushroom's gills attach to the stem well there are some gills that are totally free free gills don't actually attach to the stem they go in towards the stem swoop up and attach to the cap they're completely free so those are called free gills then you have some gills that are considered notched where they go in towards the cap notch up and then come back down and attach to the stem so they can kind of look like they're free but they're not they're actually attached to the stem so it's notched gills then you're going to find some mushrooms have gills that run down the stem and attach downwards this is called decurrent decurrent gills and there are a lot of other terminology words that you can use to describe the various ways gills attach to a stem but it's a little advanced so we're not going to get into it but also just pay attention maybe your gills are just attached directly to the stem that's another option as well there you go gill attachment that's important to pay attention to now very similar to gills are false skills false skills function the same way that girls do but they're going to visually and even texturally feel different to you they're going to be more shallow they're usually going to cross and fork and vein with each other and a lot of times fall scales are decurrent where they run down the stem of a mushroom now there's no cut and dry way to say this is a true gill this is a and this is a false gill here's the dividing line because there are mushrooms that kind of fall right in between they look like a mix of true gills and fall skills and that's okay that's just gonna happen but look at your gills and look for maybe how shallow they might be run your finger across them if they don't fold like a pages in a book would like true gills do then maybe their false skills this photo right here i mean this is pretty obvious this thing is shallow and so veiny these are false skills but in this photo right here it's kind of a mix in between looking a little bit like a true gill but a little bit like a fall scale as well the term fall scale is something that you just want to be comfortable using and trying to name as you look at your mushrooms the next boar bearing surface we will talk about our pores now pores they are kind of like if you were to take a bunch of straws bunch them together and they're a bunch of tubes right and then the end the open part of the straw that's the pores so it's kind of like what's going on on the bottom side of some mushroom caps it's like a bunch of tubes and the open end that we see are the pores now inside the pores is where come the spores sometimes that confuses people because we're using two words that rhyme so the spores they fall out of the pores got it okay so pores they come in all different shape sizes and colors and textures as well some things to pay attention to of course what color is it are your pores super tiny they can be so tiny look at this photo here i'm actually going to put a series of three photos here this is the basic mushroom you can see it has different underside it's not gills you get a little bit closer and you're like oh there are like maybe some little tiny holes okay get even closer here's using my macro lens those pores are so tiny they're just like little needle pricks right but then you look at this example right here those pores are pretty big and obvious so pores can be different sizes also with the maturity of a mushroom that can change so when a mushroom is super tiny and compact sometimes the pores are really tight and compact as the mushroom matures and grows up it's going to have larger pores so just you have to think about the basic growth pattern of a mushroom and just like us they change a little bit with maturity so some pores are going to be really hard and woody or really leathery you push your finger up against them and they're firm sometimes they're going to be super squishy and spongy so feeling the texture of them is also important it's also good to try and note the shape of the pores are they really circular and symmetrical are they kind of like oblong and just kind of irregularly shaped those are all important details now third and final spore bearing surface we're going to talk about our spines i love spines i love finding mushrooms that have spines i especially love finding mushrooms that have spines with new mushroom foragers because it's just so wild looking so yes some mushrooms on the underside of their cap instead of having gills instead of having pores they have beautiful lovely spines as with the other two spore bearing surfaces you're going to pay attention to general color the size maybe the texture of them some spines are incredibly fragile so if you run your finger across them they're just going to fall right off the mushroom others are very strong and sturdy when it comes to spines there's not as much detail you need to pay attention to but just the fact that you notice the mushroom has spines there you go that's a great evidence in itself because not as many mushrooms have spines as their spore bearing surface now we're moving on down the mushroom to the stem pay attention what does your stem look like is it really thin and wiry is it nice and chubby is it super fuzzy does it look like it needs to shave just like i do they're all sorts of colors textures just like we've been talking about in a mushroom stem here are some general shapes that you want to pay attention so here are some general shapes you want to pay attention to when it comes to a mushroom stem sometimes the stem is going to be very equal how thick it is at the top is how thick it is at the bottom it's pretty symmetrical sometimes a mushroom is going to be tapered at the bottom where at the base of it it starts to kind of taper in maybe even all the way to a point or maybe just start going in a little bit sometimes a mushroom enlarges at the base so an enlarged base sometimes if it is especially enlarged just at the base of it we call this a bulbous stem now i want to look closer at the textures that might be on the surface of the stem there are a couple of patterns i want you to learn about number one is the reticulation i love reticulation it's beautiful it's like this fancy finely netted pattern that some mushrooms have i like to liken it to as a mushroom put on fishnet stockings sometimes reticulation is not very obvious so always look closely but sometimes it is very predominant feature on the mushroom stem this is most common in bullets you will hear that term and learn about that soon if you have not already some mushroom stems are going to have something that people like to call granular dots and others will have things called skabers which kind of sounds like scabs which is a little bit what they look like both of these for a beginner can be a little hard to differentiate from each other both sort of look like the mushroom was maybe splashed with like a little bit of gravel or a little bit of mud the thing is the more you handle mushrooms the more you see them yourself the more you're going to be able to tell the differences between these two things but it's just something to look out for look for little granules on the stem little dots or maybe even just little tufts of tissue that are a little harder that look like little tiny scabs here are some visuals for that hopefully it kind of helps you wrap your brain about around what that might look like and then let's not forget about the possibility that there could be tissue on your stem tissue left over from a partial veil so look for a ring a skirt a ring zone any evidence of that then also the base of your stem does it have a cup or does it have a little bit of ringed tissue at the very base of the stem you need to look for those things as well those are so imperative when it comes to identifying your mushrooms and also keeping yourself safe because some of the most toxic mushrooms out there have those features keep that in mind now let's go even a little deeper deeper than the stem we are going underground within the wood to the fungus the vegetative part of the fungus remember we talked mushrooms are just the fruit of the fungus where's the rest of the fungus it's usually underground in the form of mycelium it is so amazing i wish i could explain to you just the phenomenon that mycelium is it is a thin celled organism this fungus that lives in one of the most hostile environments imaginable there's so many other microorganisms down there there are other fungus there are bacteria and this thing is such a powerhouse it's going through the soil it's creating pathways it is uh excreting enzymes to digest things and then taking those things in as nutrients mycelium itself it actually kind of works a little bit like a human digestive system we consume food and then digest it but instead for them they digest it on the outside and then consume it to the inside so this is kind of cool because understanding the way that mycelium functions you see there are some parallels when it comes to humans which is awesome because genetically fungus is more closely related to humans than they are to plants the mycelium is what's responsible for basically the decomposition of anything that's dead and rotting but it's also responsible for giving life because the exchange of nutrients that it has with other organisms with plants there are some some types of fungus where the mycelium is parasitic there are some relationships where the mycelium is cyprobic where it's decomposing things there are some relationships where it's mycorrhizal where it's a beneficial relationship in fact almost every single plant tree has a mycorrhizal connection their root system with the mycelial network of the fungus so the mycelium it's there it's expanding it's happy it's eating but at some point there are going to be shifts and changes maybe it runs out of surface area to expand maybe it runs out of a nutritional source and so it starts to store up nutrients and storehouses and then when there's another shift maybe the temperature changes the moisture level changes rains come seasons start to shift and that signals the mycelium all right guys it's time to get this reproduction underway and it pulls in from their storehouses and starts to create the fruiting bodies the mushrooms that's where we get our mushrooms so why is this important to even understand when it comes to a forging and identification perspective first off understanding the function of a fungus in the woods and in the environment is gonna you know impart a little more respect in awe for the organism itself also it's going to give you perspective on what harvesting is actually doing you're not taking the entire organism you're just taking the fruiting body you understand that concept that's going on another thing is sometimes mycelium can help you in the identification process because there are some mushrooms that have really strong basal mycelium which is like kind of like a big fluffy bunch of mycelium right at the base of a stem and sometimes it can be different colored and so the color or even the density of that mycelial patch can help you in identifying sometimes mushrooms will have a long cord of mycelium tapering down into the soil like a thick cord of it that's called a rhizome and that is something that you can help identify your mushroom with so there are also some practical reasons but also just some appreciation reasons of why we should understand mycelium and make it part of our identification in our foraging process as well alright everyone that concludes the first video in our mushroom 101 series stay tuned because part two is going to be coming out soon and we're going to take this a little bit further elaborate a little more specifically with the environment and habitat how those things can help us identify mushrooms but also help us find the mushrooms that we're looking for if this is the first time you've really learned about the anatomy of a mushroom i really encourage you watch the video a second time maybe take some notes this information is a lot to take in at first but it's really useful for any future endeavors in identifying mushrooms don't forget to like subscribe leave us a comment it really helps us out and stay tuned like i said part two of this series will be coming out soon we'll see you then you

Channel: Yellow Elanor

Views: 84,094

Keywords: Mushroom, Foraging, Fungi, Yellow, Elanor, Identification, Vlog, Pacific, Northwest

Id: 5sylVme-EfA

Length: 28min 59sec (1739 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020