Important: Safety Warning
This page offers rules for telling edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. No such rules are reliable, and these identifications predate modern mycology. Deadly species closely resemble edible ones, and mistakes are regularly fatal. Never eat a wild mushroom on the strength of this text.
This page states that certain wild plants are safe to eat. Its identifications and edibility claims are more than a century old and in some cases simply wrong, and deadly look-alikes exist for many edible species. Never eat a wild plant on the strength of this text.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Mushrooms and Truffles
These are classed among vegetables. Mushrooms, which grow about us abundantly, may be easily gathered, and as they contain considerable nutriment, should often be found on the table. While there are hundreds of varieties, one by a little study may acquaint herself with a dozen or more of the most common ones which are valuable as food. Consult W. Hamilton Gibson, "Our Edible Toadstools and Mushrooms." Many might cause illness, but only a few varieties of the Amanita family are deadly poison. Mushrooms require heat and moisture, - a severe drought or very wet soil being unfavorable for their growth. Never gather mushrooms in the vicinity of decaying matter. They appear the middle of May, and last until frost comes. Campestris is the variety always found in market; French canned are of this family. Boleti are dried, canned, and sold as cepes.