These beautiful mushrooms are growing wild in our back garden.
My husband wants to know if they are edible and if so would anyone out there like them.
We live in Durban.
— Helen McNulty
Categories
Offer: Mushrooms
Sprig
7 replies on “Offer: Mushrooms”
Those look a lot like a mushroom I used to see and eat in the UK called the Parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera). I wouldn’t risk eating them until you can be sure, but if you get confirmation they are very nice mushrooms to eat indeed. 🙂 I’m also confident that there would be a market for them if you could culture/collect sufficient quantities of them.
Thank you Alexander. They grow wild in our garden and I am a bit cautious about eating them. Mushrooms are known to be a bit dodgy!
what is the best way to confirm the identity of mushrooms? get a book? take them to a mushroom expert?
A mycologist would be your best bet I suppose, but there are a couple of very good South African mushroom field guides on the market. Have a squiz at your local Exclusive Books store, if you find one but can’t afford the book or don’t want to purchase it just flip through like I do hahaha. I can waste hours in book shops without buying anything!
Hi Helen!
Dom and I were wondering why Ray is asking you if he can eat those mushrooms?!
Hi Catherine and Dom,
Only saw your comment now. When I asked Ray he said, ” I was hungry at the time” !
Parasols, have a loose skirt, so look on the stem and see if the skirt is loose and can move up and down the stem, also take spore print to be perfectly sure.
https://mushroom-collecting.com/mushroomparasol.html
Best is to take one to a mushroom expert to confirm.