In article ,
Christina Websell wrote:

Interestingly, today, I noticed the same type of mushroom that made me ill
has appeared in exactly the same place in my garden. One only, it's always
just the one - 3 or 4 inches across, white on top, looks exactly like a safe
one. Will I eat it? Nope. It's been chewed a bit by something, but that
something will never be me!
If there are mushroom experts here, I could pull it up see what colour the
gills are and whether it has a frillie thing on the stem - but I don't think
I would have eaten it before if the gills hadn't been brown which may have
lulled me into a sense of false security.
If it helps, underneath poplar trees, shady garden.

Well, I am no expert, but I am one of the people who could probably
make a reasonable stab at it. But it would help a lot if you do
the following, and preferably take pictures of all aspects as you
do this:

1) Get it out intact, right down to the base, and then check the
following three points (of which more than one may be the case).
2) Check whether it has a ring (i.e. a thin membrane joining
the cap to high up on the stem).
3) Check whether it has a volva (i.e. a thin membrane joining
the cap to the base of the stem).
4) Check whether it has any other trace of a thin membrane
covering it.
5) Cut it in half, vertically, as carefully as possible, and
note if its gills run down the stem, join the stem or are free
of the stem.
6) Take measurements of cap width and total height, and preferably
cap and stem thickness.
7) Break the cap and stem of one half apart, carefully, and check
whether any of the gills remain attached to the cap.
8) Separate one half cap into two, carefully, and place the
quarters gill side down on some blackish paper and some white paper.
9) After a day or so, spores should have fallen on the paper,
and report the gill colour and spore colour.

I think that's all, without a field microscope :-)

You don't need to do all of that to identify a field mushroom,
but you do need to do it all to identify 'mushroom-like' fungi
even approximately. See why they are tricky?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.