Is there a website which identifies mushrooms?

[Owlinthedark]

I used peat free compost in my raised beds and for the first time these mushrooms have sprouted. We normally get smaller ones on the lawn.

They look like field mushrooms and I’d love to forage them but I am well aware that mushrooms can be toxic. Is there a mushroom identifier website that I can be pointed towards?

Here are some photos.

Here they are

There’s an app called “Seek” which identifies pictures of all wildlife (plants animals etc) and other similar apps I think.

However I would not trust any online resource to identify mushrooms for foraging. Many edible mushrooms have poisonous twins so not worth the risk.

There's a global Facebook site that does

@EggbertHeartsTina Thanks, do you think my local plant nursery would be able to tell me?

Most unlikely, I think. They won’t be experts at identifying fungi. (But you never know your luck!)

Shroomify is a good app

If you’re thinking of foraging fungi, it’s not a matter of looking at pictures on the internet, you really need to get into it enough to recognise how fungi grow, the terminology used for all their parts. You should also start with fungi that cannot be confused with a poisonous species - field mushroom not being one of these.

From your photos, I would not think these are field mushrooms - the cap is too thin, the stipe too slender. If you were seeking an identification, you would be looking at: the gills and how they are attached to the stipe, the spore colour, the cap shape if both young an older specimens, whether it has a ring, whether the flesh changes colour when bruised, whether it has a volva …. You can’t see any of this on your photos.

They don’t look like field mushrooms too me.

We got given a Collins pocket guide to mushrooms & fungi & off the 200+ species it listed almost all were poisonous with only a tiny handful being not, so based on that, I would most definitely not pick anything without a certified guide!

If you are foraging fungi, never eat them all. Always leave-a typical specimen in good condition in-an obvious place for the medical services

I've got a plant identifying app that suggests these are plutaceae mushrooms

Pluteaceae mushrooms is a family of fungi that lives by decomposing wood. To the casual observer they look just like regular mushrooms, but to fungi experts they present more of a problem since the members of this genus are notoriously hard to classify, and some resemble deadly poisonous fungi. This is a great reminder why only experts should collect mushrooms.

Oh bollocksy bollocksy. Can I put them in the landfill bin? Wearing rubber gloves? There’s little to be gained in putting them in the compost bin as the spores will spread out again.

Thank you for your replies. Will sort them out pronto 🍄

You can go on courses to help you identify fungi but i agree unless you consult an expert i would be too scared. A friend who is from Eastern Europe has always picked mushrooms and has identified for me so i trust her but not myself.
Not enough people forage here to become expert.

Buy a book. Do not rely on websites for mushroom info! Start looking up the ones you see to learn what's safe.

The safe starting point is to assume it's toxic unless you absolutely know it isn't.

This excellent advice is enough to put most of us off ever foraging for fungi, I think!

You can put them in garden waste bin. Wash your hands after and don’t put your fingers in your mouth till you have.

Fungi spores are so tiny that it’s safe to assume they’re everywhere. If you’ve got the right conditions, you’ll have the fungus, and they’re important in the breaking down of dead material. So personally I wouldn’t worry about them on my compost heap. This may be a little cavalier.

Remember the mushroom is only the fruiting body. The “plant” is a mass of fine fibres in the soil. When I started gardening, orchids were thought to be very special because of their symbiotic relationship with soil fungi - no fungus, no orchid. Now it’s known that over 90 per cent of plant families have symbiotic fungi, and you can buy little tubs of fungi to sprinkle into planting holes.

Actually, what I’d do is admire them, and leave them exactly where they are

They’re nestled against my chard. Can I eat my chard?

Yes I'd just wash it thoroughly. Fungi is a sign of a healthy veg plot.
I'm guessing here but they do look like cultivated mushrooms from what I can see. Your compost probably included spent mushroom compost which would have the fungal spores in.
However don't eat until you are 100% sure of the id. You cant tell what it is just from the cap (top).
I'm currently reading my way through Edible Mushrooms by Geoff Dann which is very informative and full of clear pictures. I really recommend it if you want to get into foraging mushrooms.

I'm guessing here but they do look like cultivated mushrooms from what I can see. they have the same cap colour. But the cap is too thin, the stipe too slender, and we can’t even check the gill colour.

You cant tell what it is just from the cap (top). Absolutely!

And leave another for the coroner 😄

I found a bunch of these in our back garden earlier on today which was weird because I've lived here 5 years and never had mushrooms before! Not sure how we've suddenly got them but I've left them for now as I cba to get rid.

Do I need to dig them out?

What you see as a mushroom is just the fruiting body. They don’t fruit every year. The main fungus is underground, a fine network called mycelium. The biggest living organism on earth is a fungus, a honey fungus, covering nearly 1000 hectares in Oregon. So probably not worth trying to dig out

when I started gardening, much was made of orchids and their symbiotic relationship with fungi - if the right fungus wasn’t in the soil, you couldn’t grow the orchid. Now it’s realised that over 90% of plant families have a symbiotic relationship with fungi.

I just did a foraging course last weekend.

Always ID any mushroom 100% by your own knowledge - don't rely on an app. You need to look at gills, skirt, colour, shape of root - lots of things to help you ID it.

I recommend a foraging course to give you more info.

Oooh @elephantseal where was your course? I've just been looking into them but they are all booked up round here