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Rhizohunter
myco-nerd



Registered: 04/22/11
Posts: 7,894
Last seen: 5 years, 3 months
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Agaricus question
#14572878 - 06/07/11 04:42 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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I know that if an agaricus species stains yellow and smells like chemicals it is considered to be poisonous, but I am questioning whether or not all agaricus species that do not have these characteristics are good to eat.
This is assuming that a person can tell the difference between this species and others.
I see so many questions on here about whether or not you can tell an edible mushroom from another, but as far as this species goes, I have only heard of this way to differentiate between edibility and poisonous.
Just curious on the subject
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elprawn
Mushroom Guestimator



Registered: 10/17/09
Posts: 14,303
Loc: Ilford, England
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All of them that don't smell like chemicals are good to eat.
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Rhizohunter
myco-nerd



Registered: 04/22/11
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Re: Agaricus question [Re: elprawn]
#14572892 - 06/07/11 04:54 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
elprawn said: All of them that don't smell like chemicals are good to eat.
Thanks Elprawn, I am kinda pissed now because I found a decent sized patch a few days ago that had no chemical smell and didn't have yellow stains on the cap. I had a good feeling that they were edible, and really wish I would have gone back now.
There was one growing under my pine trees yesterday that smelled like straight chemicals and the cap had extreme yellow bruising.
Man that mushroom stunk...
I shall be off shrooming soon then I suppose, cause we had heavy rainfall 2 days ago
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,672
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The yellow bruising in agaricus species is often not immediately apparent. It's best to pick one, slice it in half vertically, and bruise the inside of the base of the stem. That's where the yellow bruising is the most apparent. Species like agaricus xanthodermus often don't exhibit any yellow spots on the caps as long as they're not damaged.
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Rhizohunter
myco-nerd



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Re: Agaricus question [Re: koraks]
#14572916 - 06/07/11 05:08 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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That was the thing I was questioning about the species that I picked underneath my pine trees earlier. I cut the mushrooms in half and waited fifteen minutes or so and did not see any bruising, but the cap was stained yellow and the mushroom smelled very strong of chemicals.
I could tell it was a poisonous species, but I found it strange that the cap stained but the flesh didn't.
Maybe I didn't wait long enough?
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,672
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That's odd, I would expect the inside of the stems to bruise easier. Are you sure the stains on the caps were bruising, and there wasn't some other cause for the coloration?
Also, smell is the best indicator with Agaricus species, to the best of my knowledge. If it smells bad, it's not good to eat. But personally, I'd mistrust anything that shows yellow staining, regardless of smell.
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ToxicMan
Bite me, it's fun!


Registered: 06/28/02
Posts: 6,722
Loc: Aurora, Colorado
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The location of the bruising is variable, dependent on species and somewhat on the individual. Some species will bruise more in the stem, some more in the cap. A. xanthodermus specimens from my local area tend to bruise almost entirely toward the base of the stem, although some also bruise a little near the middle of the cap.
If you actively bruise the tissue on the inside it makes the reaction faster and stronger. You should also realize that bruising reactions can take up to an hour, although they're usually much faster than that with Agaricus.
To get the best effect, scrape the inside with your knife edge, and do it hard enough that you're almost on the verge of destroying the mushroom. Try to damage the tissue.
The final way to do it is to put some KOH solution on the mushroom. I don't advocate that for most people because carrying a bottle of caustic liquid around isn't the safest thing to do, and it renders those areas of the mushroom inedible. If you're picking mushrooms to eat, it's not a very useful test. If you're picking specimens for study, chemical tests can be very useful.
-------------------- Happy mushrooming!
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LanLord
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Re: Agaricus question [Re: elprawn]
#14573167 - 06/07/11 07:37 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
elprawn said: All of them that don't smell like chemicals are good to eat.
This does, of course, depend upon your ability to detect that checmically smell.
My nose, which took a beating in the 80s (I tried to snort most of columbia), can't smell many of the nuances of Agaricus, which makes this genus tough for me.
-------------------- Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
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elprawn
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Registered: 10/17/09
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Re: Agaricus question [Re: LanLord]
#14573173 - 06/07/11 07:40 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
LanLord said:
Quote:
elprawn said: All of them that don't smell like chemicals are good to eat.
This does, of course, depend upon your ability to detect that checmically smell.
My nose, which took a beating in the 80s (I tried to snort most of columbia), can't smell many of the nuances of Agaricus, which makes this genus tough for me.
He can detect the smell, he said it in his follow-up post.
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,672
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Re: Agaricus question [Re: LanLord]
#14573237 - 06/07/11 08:15 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Still, it's a valid point. Despite smoking way too much, I'm still blessed with a relatively accurate and sensitive sense of smell. But many people cannot effectively make use of their sense of smell in mushroom identification, so the usability of this characteristic is limited. It's good to be aware of that.
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Rhizohunter
myco-nerd



Registered: 04/22/11
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Re: Agaricus question [Re: koraks]
#14575447 - 06/07/11 04:50 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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When a few more pop up in my back yard I'll wait a while longer to see if the reaction occurs after cutting.
I'm not too good on my sense of smell, but that mushroom smelled extremely strong, so I don't know how anyone could misidentify it unless you were sick or something.
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Chaos_ultt
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I've heard that some Agaricus don't start to smell like chemicals until you begin cooking them
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elprawn
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Quote:
Chaos_ultt said: I've heard that some Agaricus don't start to smell like chemicals until you begin cooking them
Yeah if it smells awful when you cook it then it's inedible. It depends on the sensitivity of your olfactory system. Cooking anything releases its aroma, so it makes it more obvious.
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