The world is filled with many different mushrooms. There are poisonous mushrooms that look like active ones. You definitely need to know about them if you are looking for active ones. There are delicious edible mushrooms for terrific tasting meals as well! And there are other mushrooms that are fun to study like
Panellus stipticus that glows in the dark!
Mushrooms are so much more than something to get high with. If you miss enjoying them for other reasons you probably have missed a lot.
Here are some of the other ones you need to look at:
Cantharellus cibarius
CAP 4-15 cm broad, plane to broadly depressed with an often wavy or irregularly lobed margin; surface smooth or occasionally cracked, not viscid; orange to bright golden-orange, egg-yellow, or yellow (but in dry weather or direct sunlight often bleached out and cracked or even greenish from algae); margin usually lobed or wavy, at first incurved. Flesh thick, firm, whitish or tinged yellow to orange under the cuticle; odor mild or faintly fruity (pumpkins or apricots); taste mild to somewhat peppery or occasionally bitter.
UNDERSIDE (Fertile surface) with thick, well-spaced to close, shallow (narrow), blunt, fold like, deeply decurrent gills which are often forked or cross-veined; colored like cap or more often paler (but brighter if cap has faded); not fading, but sometimes developing dingy orange-brown stains in old age.
STALK 2-10 cm long, 0.5-3 (5) cm thick, equal or tapered downward or sometimes enlarged at base, solid, dry, firm, colored like cap or paler, often staining ochraceous to orange-brown.
SPORE PRINT Creamy or yellow in most forms, but pinkish in one variety; spores 7-11x4-6 microns, elliptical, smooth.
HABITAT Widely scattered to gregarious on ground in woods, occurring throughout the north temperate zone and very common on the west coast in the fall, winter, and spring. In northern California and the Pacific Northwest it grows mainly with conifers, but in our area it favors live oaks, especially those at the edges of pastures. It has a long growing season and is a joy to find- brilliant splashes of gold against the subdued backdrop of decaying leaves. If you see one probe around and you’ll probably uncover more- they often hide under the humus.
EDIBILITY Edible and choice. Arguably one of the best tasting mushrooms in the world.
Morchella esculenta
