[rnhmjoj]

It is also a problem with accurate images and descriptions. Some mushrooms are very easily mistaken for others: unless you're 100% sure you've picked this very species before in around the same place and time, you'd better leave it there or bring it to a mycologist for identification.

[mcbuilder]

I agree, I always thought eating mushrooms required an expert for confirmation, otherwise you are rolling the dice. Buying a random book off Amazon and using that seems like the very definition of something a non-expert would do.

[culebron21]

You simply steer away from those that are easy to misidentify. There aren't that many species in any given area, and those that look like poisonous are few, and well known.

In my childhood, when we lived in real suburbia, with woods in 5 minutes of walk or right at the door, we routinely gathered mushrooms, and never had a problem.

We stopped it when we moved to other places, or probably because adolescence came around -- probably, parents had taken us for an interesting kind of walk, and then we'd not want it anymore.

Right now I can only recall some names of mushrooms and only sure of one species, so I won't risk at all.

[mcbuilder]

I was lucky enough to live next to a patch of morals as a kid. No expert required. :)

[im3w1l]

How long until dna tests become cheap and available enough to use for mushroom identification? I wonder what that will do to the hobby...

[pvaldes]

The dna found belongs to a mushroom called "common garden snail" plus "unknown". The database says that common garden snail is a delicacy so the stuff is fine to eat. Good appetit!.

[rolph]

not only that, some toxics taste quite delicious, others are part of an interaction [with beer/wine/spirits] that produces toxic products.