Some fungi basics: gilled mushrooms

[Frnc]

Helps me to learn stuff if I type it out, so here's a few bits I've been learning.
First off there's the hierarchy. It's worth knowing a bit. It goes like this

Order
Family
Genus
Species

There are some levels above order and one or two extras like subclass, but these are the most important ones for now.

The Mycokey wheels and Fungi of Temperate Europe, which the wheels are from, have a huge section under Agarics, 700 pages. This is the first wheel, and you can see gilled = Agarics in the bottom left, ie second item.

Wiki says: "An agaric is a type of mushroom fungus fruiting body characterized by the presence of a pileus (cap) that is clearly differentiated from the stipe (stalk), with lamellae (gills) on the underside of the pileus. "Agaric" can also refer to a basidiomycete species characterized by an agaric-type fruiting body." .... "Most species of agarics are within order Agaricales..."

So, roughly speaking, if a mushroom has gills it is in the order Agaricales. This is divided into families. These are easy to spot because they all end in "aceae". Eg:

Agaricaceae
Amanitaceae
Marasmiaceae

The family is split into various genera (plural of genus). Agaricaceae family includes
Agaricus (the type genus the family is named after)
Barcheria
Bovista
and other genera

Wild Food UK lists all mushrooms in alpabetical order of the latin name. The Latin name is always two words. The first is the genus and the second is the species. So looking at this list you immediately see the first 11 are Agaricus. Obviously these will have similar attributes. 9 are edible and two are poisonous, so you need to know how to tell them apart.

Here are the main Agarics wheels

[Kiwififer]

I go with Sir Terry Pratchett on mushrooms.

‘All mushrooms are edible but some are only edible once’.

[Frnc]

here's the Agaricus wheel

[Frnc]

I go with Sir Terry Pratchett on mushrooms.

‘All mushrooms are edible but some are only edible once’.

Yeah, from my point of view it's interesting to learn about them, and it might come in useful one day, but I'm not in any hurry to start eating wild mushrooms. In fact, reading the comments on WFUK, one person bought mushrooms for eating at a garden centre and found out they were a poisonous species of Agaricus, Yellow Stainer..."10 minutes after them cooking they smelt dreadful and we threw them straight in the bin. I obviously noticed the huge amount of yellow." The other poisonous Agaricus species WFUK list is Inky Mushroom. Smells of India ink.

Though I'd add some notes from the Marcel Bon key for Agaricus:

Key 1 fungi w cap & gills 1a flesh fibrous not easily crumbled except when dry
3b stipe central
8b gills crowded or thin
9b gills horizontal, notched, sinuate or ascendant. I think ascending means they go up as you get closer to the stipe
14 a gills free, cap often easily separable
CAP AND STIPE SEPARABLE, GiLLS FREE
15c spores ocre to rusty Agaricus

There's a key to Agaricus right at the back, mysteriously not referenced on the Argaricus species pages that I could see.

[Kiwififer]

Indeed. To misquote STP again, some are tasty, some will kill you and some will help you talk to God!

There’s loads to forage around where I live, I would love to join a foraging group but some of them are a bit clickey (sp?) for my liking. I once picked dandelions to make wine and a few went mental at me as it was ‘too early and the bees will suffer’ despite me leaving tons and taking them from several sources.

[Frnc]

Indeed. To misquote STP again, some are tasty, some will kill you and some will help you talk to God!

There’s loads to forage around where I live, I would love to join a foraging group but some of them are a bit clickey (sp?) for my liking. I once picked dandelions to make wine and a few went mental at me as it was ‘too early and the bees will suffer’ despite me leaving tons and taking them from several sources.

There are also groups on Facebook. Not sure how many of them organise meets. Even to post you need to know the etiquette. I got told off on a kidney stone diet page for posting data about a product provided by the manufacturer.

And of course there are courses. Personally, for now, I'm happy to just read up, but I do intend to get out on my rubbish bike and go looking at what's growng over the next year. I don't want to take my good bike as some people have been mugged for bikes in the woods near me. Plus if I'm on my good bilke I just want to ride.

Mushrooms are pretty fascinating, with their universal veils and partial veils etc. Neither plants nor animals, they are a separate kingdom.

[Frnc]

Here's the Amanitas wheel and some notes from the Marcel Bon key. Amanita genus contains some very poisonous species.
Key 1 fungi w cap & gills 1a flesh fibrous not easily crumbled except when dry
3b stipe central
8b gills crowded or thin
9b gills horizontal, notched, sinuate or ascendant. I think ascending means they go up as you get closer to the stipe
14 a gills free, cap often easily separable
CAP AND STIPE SEPARABLE, GiLLS FREE
NB all above is same as for Agaricus
15a spores white to pale
16b stipe ringed or not, never sheathed but with volva at the base, +/- membranous but often powdery, and sometimes inconspicuous, with cap scales easily separable from the cuticle and never concentrically overlapping
This takes you to the Amanitas key

[Frnc]

Note. Mycologists and botanists are always changing names and classification. Eg moving a species from one genus to another.
Example
The scientific name for shaggy parasol was Lepiota rhacodes, then Macrolepiota rhacodes, but recent DNA studies have moved it into the genus Chlorophyllum (which previously contained only green-spored species). Remember, the first half of the Latin name is the genus, second is the species. So now it is Chlorophyllum rhacodes (or rachodes).
When talking about several species within a genus, the first name gets shortened, eg "Shaggy parasol is the common name for three closely related species of mushroom, Chlorophyllum rhacodes (or rachodes), C. olivieri and C. brunneum".

[Frnc]

Puffballs obviously don't have gills, don't even produce spores externally, yet DNA has now placed them in the Agricales order, in the family Agaricaceae. Giant Puffballs are in the genus Calvatia or Lycoperdon or Langermannia. Common, Stump and Mosaic are in Lycoperdon. Mosaic are also listed in Calvatia.

As I said, family always ends in 'aceae'. These are easy to remember and spot. But lots of divisions start with Agari, which gets confusing. Orders end in 'ales'.

Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Subdivision: Agaricomycotina
Class: Agaricomycetes (also Tremellomycetes and Dacrymycetes)
Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (also Phallomycetidae and uncertain (see below)).
Order: Agaricales (also Amylocorticiales, Atheliales, Boletales, Jaapiales)
note: there are orders in Agaricomycotes which the subclass is uncertain. These are grouped as Subclass: incertae sedis. In here are the orders Polyporales, Russulales and others.
Family: Agaricaceae (also Amanitaceae and 30 others)
Genus: Agaricus (and many others)

Obviously the order Boletales includes Boletes. These normally have a sponge-like surface under the cap instead of gills. Some do have gills. Scleroderma citrinum, the Common Earthball, is also a mamber of this order. These don't have a stipe or cap. Wiki says that beiginners can differentiate edible and poisonous Boletes easier than gilled mushrooms ('Agarics').

Fistulina hepatica, Beefstake fungus is under Agricales. Wiki: "Fistulina is a cyphelloid genus, meaning that it is closely related to gilled fungi, but its fertile surface consists of smooth cup-shaped elements instead of gills. The underside (the hymenium) is a mass of tubules which represent a "reduced" form of the ancestral gills. "

[Frnc]

I've rearranged all my fungi notes so far into class, order, etc. These include many edible fungi, including the easiest ones to identify, and quite a few poisonous ones to avoid.

Only one isn't in the class Agaricomycetes. This is the Scarlet Elfcup, Sarcoscypha austriaca, which is in the class Pezizomycetes, order Pezizales, family Sarcoscypha. It's an easily recognised mushroom, one of the safest, edible when cooked.

Of the others, all in class Agaricomycetes, most are in the Agaricales order, in 11 families. A few are in the Boletales, Cantharellales and Polyporales orders.

I have a long way to go with my studies, but it gives you an idea.