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Puffballs, Saffron Milk Caps and Boletes?


Shroomster

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Hi all, I'm new to the forum and would like help identifying some mushrooms we found yesterday. Boyfriend and I live in Scotland and have recently got the mushroom hunting bug. Summer has been good and there has been a fair bit of rainfall lately so stuff is popping up.

There is a nearby green and leafy light industrial estate (units and workshops) where there seems to be a tonne of shrooms growing. These mushies mostly grow in grass, which I don't think fits the profiles of what I think we found, however there are quite a few trees and mature shrubs nearby and the land was previously a woodland area. A lot of landscaping went on that may have introduced spores too.

Looks to us like what we have are mainly the following varieties, although we could be so wrong...

  • Boletus aereus (Queen Bolete) - no blue/green staining on pressing the yellow pores, which have turned brown overnight, caps pale brown on the larger specimens, greasy dark brown caps on younger ones, fleshy smell.

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  • Lactarius deliciosus (Saffron Milk Cap) - green staining when bruised, mild fruity smell on a younger one that hadn't turned up at the edges but just a mushroomy smell on mature ones, pitting on the stems. The cut ones have now gone dark red where the brighter orange is. There is very little green staining on the caps which makes me think they are not false saffron milk caps. The caps of the larger/older(?) ones have turned a tan shade.

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  • Pestle puffballs - these are fairly big and the skin is quite dusty.

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While walking our dog in the country park we were also excited to find some porcelain fungus and the beginnings of the growth of Jews Ears (bonus points: there were numerous berries coming to fruition, we'll be back for these too!). We didn't get pics of those but attach pics of the ones in question that we think are edible, both intact and sliced.

It would be great if we could get some advice on whether these are worth a try and if there is anything poisonous we could confuse them with. From what I've reasearched they seem ok, but a second, third, fourth... opinion of someone more knowledgeable is always welcome.

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I'm not so sure if those first ones are actually Boletus aureus. The queen looks just like the king bolete with the exception of a darker cap and often a whitish bloom on the caps. Perhaps these are just old specimens in which case, try and find some fresher specimens. Porcini are popping all over the UK right now in ridiculous quantities. From the Highlands to all parts of Wales and England. It looks to be one of those crazy years with so many you stumble over them. Lucky you! Go find yourself some nice fresh porcini!! The rest look to be correct and are edible.

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Thank you ladyflyfish. We are naturally cautious as we have both love nature and happily pick berries, apples and so on in the wild. We are familiar with what you can and can't eat in this respect (BF was a tree surgeon to trade, which helps a lot) but mushrooms are something that can kill you, and quickly, if you are not careful.

I have some spore prints going on that I left in our workshop so we should have some more info tomorrow. Fwiw the bolete was producing pale brown spores which in addition to its other characteristics was why I thought it was a queen bolete. I avidly research whatever I embark on and realize in this case my ignorance knows no bounds, so advice is gratefully received.

On a separate note, we found another bunch of different fungi on another woodland walk in a different area today. More porcelains, blackening waxcaps and a few things that look edible but probably aren't. We picked one of each and are trying to identify them. I attach one more pic of a fungus I found on the ground, this fungus was beautiful and we didn't pick it.

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First photo way up top... I think these boletes are a species of Suillus. I can see a dark ring on the one stalk, and the pores/tubes descend the stalk. Maybe S. luteus.

Worldwide, there exists a variety of saffron-latex milkcaps. To my knowledge, this is a safe edible group. But honestly, the only experience I have with mushrooms in Scotland comes from a couple of days spent in Edinburgh.

The last photo shows a Cup Fungus. There are many types. Toxins are suspected in at least some of these types.

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Thanks very much Dave W, you seem quite the expert. See below, can I assume these are edible boletes? Not asking you to take responsibility, but I do value your opinion.

The spore prints are in and if I had any sense I'd have taken a photo of them to post, will do so tomorrow as they are in our workshop :-/ Needless to say my foolish attempt to witness what happened to an ink cap despite having read up on the usual results ended in a black smooshy mess, albeit fortunately on a clear plastic folder.

The bolete had a mid-brown print, the saffron milk cap had a dark beigey tone, and the puffball slice did very little, albeit it what it did dump looked whitish.

We had also picked a dodgy looking character for investigation and I believe it is Russula sanguinaria as it has a cherry red cap, white gills that seem to snap or bounce back and don't bruise when assaulted, and it has a slight reddish flush to the stem whereas its cousins have pure white stems. However the spore print for this is a beautiful cream colour and I am thinking of picking more for my artwork, albeit I don't have the patience for the process required to make it edible.

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There are many species of Russulas which are red-capped. They are beautiful mushrooms.

An immature puffball (white inside) will not produce a spore print. The spores are observable when the inside turns to powder... which is made up of the spores. The ppowder may sometimes be observed as a puffing cloud of smoke coming from a disturbed mature specimen.

Shroomster, if you're asking about the edibility of the boletes seen in the first photo, then they are edible. No species of Suillus is known to be toxic. Howver, with the slimy/sticky-capped types, you should peel the cuticle (cap surface) before cooking. Some people are sickened by eating the sticky cap surface of a Suillus. Mushrooms in this genus are not considered to be choice edibles.

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Abosolutely agree with Dave on the first ones: these look like Suillus to me. They look like Suillus Luteus to me, old mature ones. Don;t be in a hurry to eat them: there should be more coming, and the young ones are much better to eat, and easier to identify because of the veil. I only collect the large ones where the veil is still intact, really for practical reasons: Since you have to peel them it is just easier to do so.

Saffron caps looks like Lactarius Deliciosus, but there are several similar ones that are equally edible. It is definitely not Lactarius Torminosus, which is the toxic look alike (kind of... for me they are quite distinct). These are young so you can expect more to be growing in the same spot in the following days.

Nothing to add on the puffballs.

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Since you are starting out, my recommendation is for you to find someone from your area with good local knowledge: nothing beats holding a mushrooms, smelling it and touching its texture for identification, and local changes in colour, because of age, rain, etc can change those so that to be sure, having looked at a type multiple times is the best way.

Oh, and the best way to start is to clearly identify the really toxic ones so you can rule them out always.

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