Does anyone know what they might be... fleshy foot, brown gills, brown spores, tan cap 4-8 inches across, stem 4-6 inches, no ring, stem is about an inch wide.
I'm taking a wild guess without a photo? But...maybe Destructive Pholiota? The veil becomes less evident as the mushroom ages, sometimes becoming completely non-visible. It's a very fleshy mushroom....extremely heavy-weight. The stem is very strong and solid. The cap very thick...with the gills becoming dark brown with age. This species LOVES cut Cottonwood trees.
Hi Laure, Most local Pholiotas are not edible (may make you ill), and requires some expertise to ID them to species. I strongly recommend caution: Making an ID from a photo for something you are considering eating is an iffy proposition. frog
I recently recieved news of a fellow mushroom hunter I'd forayed with in the past...who made the mistake of eating a deadly mushroom thinking it an edible variety. PLEASE don't make an positive ID with my photos....as Frog said, most Pholiotas are NOT edible...and can make you very sick...even wnen they are considered 'ok' to eat.
My understanding was he thought it was Flammulina velutipes...and he harvested Gallerina autumnus instead. I've only hunted with this person twice so I'm not really sure just how good he'd NORMALLY have been at ID'ing mushrooms........ I got a call from a mutual friend that he'd made this mistake but the family is trying to keep it quiet. He'd harvested several other species that WERE edible? But...somehow...got the wrong one.
Thanks for sharing - that really brings home the risks we take eating wild mushrooms (and teaching about them). Even if you're 99.5% sure of a mushroom identification, that means you make one mistake for every 200 mushrooms you eat.
I have my 'Elite 20' that I know I can't mistake when eating.... 1.Hen of the Woods 2.Chicken of the Woods (we only have this and the sulpher shelf...not the other species) 3.Shaggy Mane 4.Oysters 5.Blewit 6.Honey 7.Puffballs...(at least 3 edible species here) 8.Hericiums...(unmistakable!) 9.Morels 10.Beefsteak 11.Reishi 12.Purple-gilled Laccaria 13.Rooting Collybia 14.Chanterelles 15.Ringless Honey 16.Old Man of the Woods 17.Tree Ear 18.Jellies 19.Prince Agaricus 20.Ischnoderma resinosum (don't think it has a common name) Anyway....these are all species that I know on site. Without doubts. I have not had issues with mistaking these....and know that some, like the Honey and Ringless Honey have fooled people in the past...but I do know to check for spore/rhizomes/hosts....all the necessary 'markers' to know if they're safe or not. If I have doubts, the mushroom/fungi gets left behind. We do have many, many more species here locally that I've tried, but as my positivity when hunting alone aren't as strong as when in groups with the EXPERTS....I'm much more caucious then. I don't want to loose more friends to these issues....nor does my son deserve to loose his mom.
would never think of eating a mushroom from an id on one picture. I live on a piece of land and see the same varieties come back every year, so I am slowly educating myself (as time allows).