Mushrooms 101: Identification in Collection & Observation - Part 2

we have kind of covered the anatomy of a mushroom it might seem like a lot but trust me that was very basic and there's so much more that really truly goes in to what a mushroom is but from there we need to take our observation for identification outside of the mushroom welcome to part two of mushrooms 101 identification doesn't stop with the anatomy of a mushroom to properly id there's a thorough collection process and more observations to be made we're going to talk about environment and habitat you need to take notice write some notes about what's going on around that mushroom what types of trees do you see are they hardwood are they conifer what types of shrubs are around do you notice any other flowers that are happen to be blooming at that time those things are important to take note of because sometimes there are species of mushrooms that can look really similar to each other but one only grows near cottonwood trees the other one only grows near pine trees two very different trees and if you have the environment dialed in it's going to be easier to figure out the idea of the mushroom you have even though they could look almost identical it's also important to know what is your mushroom actually growing from is it growing from the soil or is it growing from buried wood is it growing from a tree from a log is it in sandy soil is it in a burned area those things you need to pay attention to so when you're identifying your mushroom and you don't know what it is it's the first time you're trying to do this please unearth the entire mushroom please there's so much information you could potentially miss if you do not unearth the entire mushroom we've already talked about the stem we've talked about that universal veil how it can leave evidence we talked about the mycelium those features alone you need to observe by unearthing the entire mushroom but what about this check this mushroom out do you see that do you see the color difference at the top there maybe the top four inches are kind of light brown and the rest is dark that whole thing was underground that huge long rooting stem was underground but had you just taken pictures of the mushroom and let it be or just kind of like yanked on it and it broke off and you assumed you got the entire mushroom what do you have a little brown mushroom how many little brown mushrooms are there out there way too many way too many so doing your due diligence and unearthing the entire specimen you can come across something like this imagine how much easier it's going to be to id when you see such a crazy and pretty unique feature like that there's also sometimes color changes in the base of a stem so right underneath the soil line there are many mushrooms that have pigments that are different than what are on top of the soil so you need to unearth your specimen in order to see that also unearthing the specimen helps you see is it attached to buried wood or not there are many mushrooms that grow from buried stumps or roots knowing if a mushroom is growing from the soil versus wood is an important identification factor so guys unearth your entire mushroom you've got it and as much as i love mushrooms the next thing i'm going to ask you to do is pick on your mushrooms yup you can pick on them a little bit because you need to figure out a little more of how they operate first thing you do smell your mushrooms smell your mushrooms ninety percent of the time it's gonna smell like mushrooms and dirt but guess what you're going to get really used to what mushrooms and dirt smells like that when you come across those more unique scents like cinnamon black licorice root beer bubble gum your nose is going to be able to detect that really well if you don't smell your mushrooms regularly and you think oh man i'm going to go find myself that matsutake i hear it smells like cinnamon your brain is going to trick yourself to any white mushroom you come across smells like cinnamon don't do it always smell your mushrooms and it's fun sometimes it's horrific but sometimes it's beautiful and just crazy to think of the smells that come off of mushrooms so smell your mushrooms that's the first thing you're to do to pick on it the next thing is to pinch it slice it break it feel it mushrooms sometimes do weird things when they're pinched or bruised or broken here's an example this is a lactarius species when it is sliced it exudes a milky liquid different kinds of lactorius do this and there are other mushrooms as well sometimes they exude different colors of liquid but you don't know that unless maybe you break apart part of the gills or the cap and it starts to do so so you have to pinch it and see what happens another way to pick on your mushrooms is to push on the flesh or scratch the flesh do it on the stem on the cap on the spore bearing surface because as broken cells are exposed to oxygen oxidation happens and some mushrooms change colors some it can be a brilliant blue sometimes it can be red different mushrooms do different things this is just like if you eat a pear you bite into it and it starts to turn brown oxidation is happening mushrooms do the same thing a lot of them can just turn brown but that's still an interesting thing to take note of so does your mushroom change colors you need to pick on it in order to figure that out and sometimes simply pulling apart the flesh especially the stem to feel and see how does it feel the texture is it really fibrous is it really stringy does it really brittle does it break apart those things are also going to help you in your identification so yes i'm giving you permission to pick on your mushrooms it will help in the long run and just thank them when you're done when you take mushrooms home for further observation hopefully you unearthed the entire thing and hopefully you already smelt it and picked on it all those things are really great to do out in the field as many observations as you can make do it right away because carrying it in your basket drying it out some of those things may not be there when you get home however when you do get home here's a great thing to do next make a spore print we already talked about how mushrooms produce and release spores sometimes the color of those spores can help you in identifying a mushroom it's kind of like walking into a library and there's a bunch of books but you know what section of the library to go to for a specific type of book right if you have a mushroom and you know what color of spores it has it helps you narrow down what section to look in either a field guide or even online to help you narrow down what kind of mushroom it is instead of muddling through all of the mushrooms makes sense all right so how do you do a spore print very simple you remove the cap of the mushroom you put the mushroom with the spore bearing surface face down on a piece of paper i like to use paper that is half black in half white because spores can be black spores can be white they can be various colors in between and that way i know i can see if it's light or dark colored spores easier you let the mushroom cap rest for maybe two to six hours is usually enough covering it with a bowl is usually a good idea it keeps the air currents from moving things around it also helps keep the mushroom a little more moist so it will want to release its spores after a few hours check underneath and you should have a lovely spore deposit on your piece of paper if you don't see any spores maybe your mushroom is a little too immature and so it's not releasing spores yet it's good to use specimens that um are fully open and a little more mature um but you can also just let it wait longer maybe it needs a little more time all in all mickey's for prints it's a fun art project but it's also very educational it can help you in your identification and i just want to say don't ever judge a mushroom before you know what spore color it produces because most mushrooms are kind of in the brown white spectrum but it doesn't mean they're going to have brown and white spores all the time based on their color just don't don't do color versus color it doesn't work for example this mushroom right here beautiful purple cortinarius mushroom that produces brilliant rusty orange colored spores you never would guess that unless you're already done your research but it's pretty incredible so makes more prints for fun making for your identification those spore prints there you go now that you have a spore print you know your spore color for your mushroom you add this into all the other detailed factors that we went through and you can apply this information to a field guide to an online resource take it to your nerdy mushroom friend ask them what you might have all of it is part of the process and i know it seems kind of long and grueling but it is kind of detailed and it's not the same as a planned it's going to be take some learning it has a learning curve let's just say that the more you do it the easier it will become and i don't want you to be so overwhelmed it's going to take the fun out of it so don't go out and collect the entire forest floor full of mushrooms okay take only a few keep it really simple if you bring five home and you identify one that's great that's a huge victory or maybe you don't identify any but you learn so much just by going through the process again another victory in your education and how to identify mushrooms now that you see how detailed this process is i just want to mention if you're trying to learn how to identify edible mushrooms you need to make sure you go through this process you go through it well you go through it multiple times you try and prove yourself wrong okay and sometimes when it comes to edible mushrooms we get super excited we just want to learn them all at once no start with one or two start with some really simple to id edible mushrooms because every mushroom has a handful of other mushrooms that might look like it you don't want to pick five different edible mushrooms that maybe each have three to five different look-alikes and then all of a sudden you're trying to learn what 30 mushrooms at a time that's going to be so overwhelming just pick one or two edible mushrooms learn them well go through this process multiple times with them and then you're going to be on your way to not only identifying mushrooms in general but closer to enjoying a good meal of wild harvested mushrooms but wait my mushroom doesn't look like a mushroom yes you come across many many types of mushrooms and they're not going to all have a cap in a stem it's true so what the heck do you do with that well it's good to know that usually just how they look visually is going to help you narrow down what it is field guide online resources they do a good job of helping categorize things somewhat visually to narrow down what is so look over here what does this look like class that's right guess what this mushroom's called coral there are a lot of different types of coral mushrooms they come in different sizes and different colors and different textures just like everything else we've been talking about but if you can at least say hey this is a coral mushroom there you go you kind of know what group it goes in there are also mushrooms called clubs just like these right here these are purple fairy clubs if you've watched any of my other episodes you know i love them corals and clubs are often grouped together in a field guide or in resources you're going to get other things that are called polypores so if you hear the word polypore you hear many pores they're also known as conchs these are shelf-like fungus they grow on trees or logs so here are some examples of those these are conchs poly pores whole grouping of mushrooms there then you have things like jelly fungus right lumpy bumpy beautiful different colored types of jelly just knowing it's a jelly fungus there you go you've got yourself on a head start of trying to figure out more about that mushroom you're obviously going to also have things that are odds and ends the weird stuff like this bird's nest i love bird's nest and personally i love finding stuff that's in the odds and ends category if i find something and i look in my field guide and i see that it is in like the oddball section i do a little happy dance it's just fun so you are going to find some things like that that just don't quite fit anywhere else so always check the oddball section of your field guide if you're kind of at a loss what the heck is this thing sometimes you need to take the information that we just talked about and try and apply it to a mushroom even if it doesn't have a classic mushroom shape so look at this kind of wild this is a hidden ellen pecky eye which is the bleeding tooth fungus now looking at this photo you could probably do an internet search for weird blobby fungus that's bleeding and you could probably figure out what it is so go ahead use your detective skills that way if you like but also you can use your detective skills by applying information that we learned about different parts of a mushroom to things like this if you were to unearth this entire specimen you would see it does have a stem that kind of roots down into the ground you would see what color it is and how it's different than the outer flesh you would also see that the underside of this lumpy mass there are fine spines it's right spines that's the spore bearing surface so this mushroom could be found in a resource along with other spine mushrooms so there you go there are different ways that you can try and muddle through these oddball categories of mushrooms that aren't in that classic mushroom shape so it's usually this part in my lectures that i say oh no please stop talking you're making my brain hurt all i want to do is frolic through the woods like an elf and look at mushrooms because they think they're pretty that is me like 90 of the time i will totally admit that so if you after this you're like i don't know if i really want to go through all that i just want to enjoy mushrooms in a little bit different way that's totally fine go out there enjoy the details here are some suggestions of how to do that take photographs spend time just getting to know a mushroom that way if you want to take photographs in order to identify you could do that as well just try and take photographs from as many angles as possible think of all the id features we've talked about and try and get photos of all those features if you can but even just aesthetically take pictures of the tiny things i love taking pictures of the tiny things that's another way you can enjoy the forest join a mushroom club or a mycological society you're gonna find groups of people there who are into mushrooms for all sorts of reasons not everybody is super in to the identification or the taxonomy of a mushroom some people are more into it for the culinary side i have a lot of friends who are into mushrooms but they don't even enjoy eating them because they enjoy the other aspects of mushrooms maybe they collect mushrooms in order to make natural dyes for them and they do fiber artwork with them sometimes people are really into the cultivation side of things or the medicinal side of things you can enjoy mushrooms from all different angles and joining a club or a mycological society is how to get connected with people who are already doing those things and you can learn to appreciate them also just think about taking a really slow paced walk in the woods to notice the details on the forest floor and you bend down to a mushroom don't even need to touch it but just observe and enjoy that peaceful moment it can be very meditative it can be very helpful and healing to enjoy the forest enjoy the mushroom in that way not for any other reason than just to soak up beauty you can do that so you don't have to go through this scrolling process if you don't want to but in the identification process it is important to go through a checklist go through these details and have a really good resource that you go to in order to confirm your id just remember that every time you attempt to id it's an opportunity to learn something even though maybe you don't succeed in figuring out exactly what that mushroom is it's really good to go in with the perspective of not just what can i eat i need to id to what can i eat no look at it as what can i learn if you look at it from that perspective a lot more details are going to come to mind and it's going to feel a little more relaxed for you so what can you learn thank you so much for actually making it to the end of the episode with me i really appreciate you watching it and if you're interested in more videos check some of these out right here some other videos and playlists that i have from season one and season two please subscribe hit the bell hit the like leave a comment we're just getting started with season three so if you have any grand ideas you'd like to share with us let us know

Channel: Yellow Elanor

Views: 44,324

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

Id: jg7M9ryTk1c

Length: 18min 14sec (1094 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020