Mushrooms or Toadstools / Lovely Supper Ingredient or Death on Toast?!

[Crawhin]

Saw quite a number of these large (6 - 8" across) fungi at the weekend. I'm useless at mushroom identification so left them well alone but has anyone got a positive ID on them and did I miss out on a gourmet treat?!  :?

[attachimg=1]

Cheers,

Ian 

[superscot]

I  even bought a book on them ....still canny pick them wild when you hear the horror stories 

[Wildfisher]

Very few are seriously poisonous, many are inedible, some are hallucinogenic.  :hippy

I don't bother, simply  because I find the ordinary white field mushrooms  you can buy the best tasting and honestly find fungi in general pretty overrated and hardly worth the effort.

[Darwin]

I don't know what those are and would be very cautious.  They don't look like any I have used/purchased or see in the markets or from purveyors.
Looks like a very nice area for a long walk. 

[Harpo]

They're probably parasols or similar but they key word to that statement is "probably"

There is a great book called "mushrooming without fear"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=mushrooming+without+fear&tag=googhydr-21&index=stripbooks&hvadid=5871410889&ref=pd_sl_6owfin5416_b

it teaches you how to identify  3 or 4 of the best tasting mushrooms available which are co-incidently very different to the deadly ones.
So if you follow the book you will never pick a dangerous mushroom, however it also teaches you to avoid simple field mushrooms as they have "gilled" cousins which will harm and indeed kill you.

Porcini/Ceps are the ones to look for (but so does every one else) - the difference between them and the cultivated is huge.

i'll look a book out and try and identify what you have in the photo

PS _ i just checked my book and can't be sure, you need to see the underneath as well as the top to be sure.

[Inchlaggan]

I'd agree with parasols, but without being there this does not constitute advice.
A key feature is the ring around the stem, visible in the one at the back, this becomes detached and can be moved up and down.
IF, IF, IF they are parasols they make good eating.
BUT,BUT, BUT they can be confused with another species which is, of course, poisonous!

[burnie]

http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/index.php

This might help,I don't eat them so no expert,if you want to go foraging for wild food,I always carry "Food for free" by Richard Mabey,great little book for your pocket.

[Black-Don]

Very few are seriously poisonous, many are inedible, some are hallucinogenic.  :hippy

Jeezus, I used to think these one's were good to eat



Then I realised they were  :shock: :shock: :shock:

[River Chatter]

Don't know much about wild mushrooms - other than the kids at my secondary school collected them from the local park at lunchtime (can't imagine why!) - but just wanted to congratulate you on a cracking picture.  They look massive in the pic - almost other worldly... although that might just be my breakfast mushy's talking.   

[Wildfisher]

but just wanted to congratulate you on a cracking picture

I'll second that.

UFMs 

Unidentified Flying Mushrooms!