-L. wrote:
wrote:
The "Hen" is one of our favorite edible mushrooms of the fall. It fits
our modus operandi regarding eating wild mushrooms. The only thing it
is likely to be mistaken for is a pile of dead leaves.

js

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK: http://schmidling.com/pow.htm

Nice photo. I have a huge collection of photos of fungi I took when I
was in CA. I would love to identify all of them and start learning how
to ID edible mushrooms but I'm a bit afraid to eat any.

-L.
If you have saved the photos on a CD, you may try comparing them with
the extensive listing of known fungi from California at the San
Francisco Mycological Society. It helps to have a cursory idea of what
general group of mushrooms you are trying to find, since most of the
photos are arranged in alphabetical order. But there are good-qualify
photos of at least 300 different species - enough to have you started,
anyway. Once you have found something that looks similar to what you
have found, you may be able to identify them easier. But you must get a
good mushroom field guide to help. Audubon Field Guide to North
American Mushrooms is good and fairly cheap, much better IMO is David
Aurora's big book, as well as his "All The Rain Promises", which is
cheaper than the big book but doesn't have as many important mushrooms
in it.

There is no single manual for identification of all known mushrooms in
any area that I am aware of. Because of that, it takes several years of
searching (preferably with people who have been looking more years than
you) to feel comfortable identifying a new mushroom on site.

Daniel B. Wheeler