The mad chemist's guide to mushroom hunting

Quote: Originally posted by aaparatuss

its a good start to to a chemists mushroom guide...complete with color plates and structures! a cactus version would also be a dream i recently bought a living baseball cactus....a 2005 paper suggests cancer curing potential

White Yeti,

Thanks alot for summarizing these info on mushroom.I've also interested in mushroom's chemical usage in medicine (and also poisons),but I guess it just took me a great time to do what you just do.

Anyway,Thank alot!

p/s:I thought this may help to grow the list,

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[Edited on 16-12-2011 by kuro96inlaila]

Quote: Originally posted by AndersHoveland

I have always wondered about the feasibility of extracting methylhydrazine from poisonous mushrooms. The species gyromitra esculenta (somtimes called a "false morel") produces the toxin gyromitrin, which is actually acetaldehyde methylformylhydrazone and N-methyl-N-formylhydrazine. These mushrooms can contain up to 0.3% of the toxin by weight. These volatile hydrazine derivitives should be able to hydrolyse to methylhydrazine under alkaline or acidic conditions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyromitrin

Cool list. I am still trying to catalog the various mushrooms that grow on my property (it's wet and wooded... there are a lot).
I notice that while you list grifola frondosa under 'immune system enhancing' you list maitake (same mushroom!) at the end under 'Unclassified'. Personally I list them under 'yummy' and 'saleable' but I guess science does not recognize those categories

Quote: Originally posted by bbartlog

I notice that while you list grifola frondosa under 'immune system enhancing' you list maitake (same mushroom!) at the end under 'Unclassified'. Personally I list them under 'yummy' and 'saleable' but I guess science does not recognize those categories

Bahh... I thought I didn't make any significant maitakes Sorry about that! A few errors slip through, unfortunately, I'll fix that on the master list right now.
Speaking of prized mushrooms, I could also have included morcella esculenta because it also produces some bioactive chemicals, but since it's such a prized mushroom, I'd rather sell it or cook with it rather than extract chemicals, using it for chemicals would be a complete and utter waste, I understand.

I didn't want to omit too many species either because if I eliminated all the prized mushrooms, the list would be significantly shorter, and I wouldn't be able to call it a complete list.

Matsutake mushrooms are a seasonal delicacy in Japan.

You might be able to find them in an ethnic Japanese supermarket or specialty restaurant.
They are available only in the autumn and are fairly expensive, 7 to 10 euros per single mushroom!

They have a strange taste. Pungent and a little spicy, almost like cinnamon, but not quite in the same exact way, suggestive that they may contain some sort of aldehyde. Of course they have a deep "earthy" taste. There also seems to be a subtle flavor of spearmint.

The mushrooms seem to have a small psychlogical effect, which only becomes pronounced after ingestion of several mushrooms. There is a feeling of euphoria, or at least similar to breathing nitrous oxide. The effects are very mild, so do not spend so much money and then be dissapointed.

I would be very interested to know what type of interesting compounds are found in these mushrooms.

Here are some pictures of the mushrooms growing in their natural habitate (site is swedish) :
http://www.goliatmusseron.blogspot.com/

Quote: Originally posted by AndersHoveland

They are available only in the autumn and are fairly expensive, 7 to 10 euros per single mushroom![...] The mushrooms seem to have a small psychlogical effect, which only becomes pronounced after ingestion of several mushrooms. There is a feeling of euphoria, or at least similar to breathing nitrous oxide. The effects are very mild, so do not spend so much money and then be dissapointed. I would be very interested to know what type of interesting compounds are found in these mushrooms.[...]

Quote: Originally posted by GreenD

What a great thread. To scare you - you can look up the acacia family and their "active" alkaloids... Wikipedia used to have a wonderful table. It may still be there. Incredible plants.

Here are a few interesting , fruiting fungi I saw while walking the dog. Not sure on the taxonomy yet.

Nice mushrooms Bot.
I found some out-of-season mushrooms since I posted this thread. Here are some pics:


I'm pretty sure this is Trametes versicolor, but I should never bee 100% sure with anything I do.
I picked them on Christmas day

I'm still an amateur, I only started this mushrooming hobby last year and I'm impatiently waiting for this year's mushroom season. It gets really rainy where I live, perfect for mushroom hunting. But unfortunately, you can also find some of the deadliest mushrooms and look-alikes around here.

Quote: Originally posted by White Yeti

I'm pretty sure this is Trametes versicolor, but I should never bee 100% sure with anything I do.

Quote: Originally posted by bbartlog

Trametes I'd say for sure, but maybe gibbosa instead of versicolor ? Best to ask an expert if it matters (which would not be me).

Here's an odd mushroom I noticed today while walking the dog. I didn't see any photos that looked similar to it when searching bleeding mushrooms in Google. My dog took an interest in it momentarily, stopping and smelling it for a few seconds.



[Edited on 14-8-2013 by Morgan]

I saw these <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morchella" target="_blank">morels</a> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" /> growing in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Park" target="_blank">Interstate Park</a> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" /> (MN side) while attending a field geology lecture with a friend. Nobody else in the group had noticed them, and when I went back to snap a photo as evidence, they were gone. Apparently, they had all been picked by a couple of mushroom hunters who were kind enough to let me take this picture.

<table><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morchella_esculenta" target="_blank">Morchella esculenta</a></em> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" /><br />yellow morel</td></tr></table>
[edit] I found more while walking around my neighborhood this afternoon (sorry for overexposure & wonky focus, all I had was my phone camera).

<table><tr><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td align="center" colspan="3"><em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletinellus_merulioides" target="_blank">Gyrodon merulioides</a></em> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" /><br />ash bolete</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td valign="bottom"></td><td></tr><tr><td align="center" colspan="2">unidentified</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td align="center" colspan="2">unidentified</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td valign="bottom"></td></tr><tr><td align="center" colspan="2">unidentified</td></tr></table>

[Edited on 15.8.13 by bfesser]

More Mushrooms

<table><tr><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td align="center" colspan="3">identification pending</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td align="center" colspan="2">unidentified</td></tr></table>

I took some photos of a blue mushroom growing under this kraken looking tree today. The inky indigo color was kind of pretty. Maybe if you were in a culinary mindset you could plate a meal with blue spots or fancy drizzle patterns around the dish to dress it up for something different or avant-garde.

"Although L. indigo is a well-known edible species, opinions vary on its desirability. For example, American mycologist David Arora considers it a "superior edible",[9] while a field guide on Kansas fungi rates it as "mediocre in quality"

"The flesh is pallid to bluish in color, slowly turning greenish after being exposed to air ..."

"(7-Isopropenyl-4-methylazulen-1-yl)methyl stearate, the blue lipophilic azulene pigment from L. indigo. The part of the molecule responsible for its color (chromophore) is highlighted in blue."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactarius_indigo

nice, I find those and the indigo clitocybe ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clitocybe_nuda ) around here. about a week ago I found a solitary yellow foot chanterelle way out of season. Some of the large "sweet tooth" hedgehog's are still going under the eucalyptus trees. also seemingly way out of season here. every year I take a hundred or more pic's on my food gathering quests. some from this last season...




1) clock wise from top left,.. yellow foot chanterelle- Craterellus tubaeformis( big diagonal stripe), hedgehog mushroom- Hydnum repandum, golden chanterelle -Cantharellus cibarius, king bolete- Boletus edulis, candy caps -Lactarius fragilis
2) prince mushrooms - Agaricus augustus
3) strawberries and cream- Hydnellum peckii
4) my son in his stroller with a bunch of white matsutake in the bottom- Tricholoma magnivelare
5) gold chanterelle's from a jobsite, Cantharellus cibarius
6) me with some white matsutake's picked after work- Tricholoma magnivelare
7) yellow foot chanterelle's- Craterellus tubaeformis
8) big box-o-matsutake's - Tricholoma magnivelare


[Edited on 29-4-2015 by violet sin]

I found the indigo mushroom again, this time on some bluffs near the bay. It was surrounded by oak leaves which I cleared away for this first photo. The stem was very short so it was hard to lift without damaging the gills. With all the leaves, the mushroom didn't really stand out and might have gone unnoticed.

As an aside, I thought it of note that there was an ammonia leak long ago not very far from where I took these pictures. The day of mushroom hunting I saw this train go by and thought about the incident. It's just a story I heard about. Perhaps this should be a new thread - Closely Watched Trains.

"The Thorshov story began on November 9, 1977. Dr. Jon Thorshov, a thirty-eight-year-old physician, his wife, his four-year-old daughter, and his one-year-old son were at their home in Pensacola when a massive freight train operated by L&N derailed near their home and released anhydrous ammonia. The family attempted to escape their home, but were overcome by the fumes. Dr. and Ms. Thorshov died, and both children sustained serious physical injuries."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Levin

"The train was carrying a toxic chemical called anhydrous ammonia. Two tanks of the ammonia were punctured in the crash, sending lethal doses of poison gas into the atmosphere."
"The derailment occurred 40 yards from the Thorshov’s home. In addition to Dr. Thorshov’s death, each member of the family was seriously injured. Sadly, they had only lived in their house for one month before the accident."
http://inweekly.net/wordpress/?p=4068

A few weeks ago I went out in the woods with a friend who's an experienced shroomer. We found several big patches of cinnabar chanterelle; they were very tasty!



I wouldn't trust my own ID skills for most things, but chicken-of-the-woods is pretty unmistakeable. There's a huge one in the woods near my place, which I've seen flush for the last three Augusts. This year I cut some off and sizzled it with some herbs and salt; it soaked up all the butter I threw in the pan. Then it went on a pizza with some marinated pizza