Mushrooms - Good and Evil

By Al Lowe
Contributor

The mushroom is a fungus. That means that it belongs to a huge group of plants, which affect our lives in many, many ways. The great group of fungi include such things as moulds, yeasts, mildews, plant and animal diseases. Some fungi infect humans, and some are the great benefactors, like penicillin.
So let's consider only mushrooms for the time being. The part which we see and eat is only a very small part of the whole plant. The main plant is underground, or in some decaying material. It is the 'mycelium' and it is composed of millions of tiny, almost microscopic threads. If you dig up a bit of earth where mushrooms are growing, you may find a greyish film on some of the soil. This is the mycelium.
The mycelium has the ability to absorb nutrients from dead plant or animal tissue, or from animals wastes, in the soil. Mushrooms have no green chloroplasts in them, so they cannot make their own food, as our green plants do.
The part which we call the mushroom, is just the reproductive part of the plant. It has two major parts, the stalk or stem which holds it up, and the 'cap' which often looks like a little umbrella. If you look at the underside of the cap, you will see a lot of 'gills' radiating out from the centre. These gills bear the spores. Spores are tiny, like little dust particles, and there are millions of them. These are what starts off little new mushrooms. In that sense, they are like the seeds of green plants. But other than the key to new life, seeds and spores are totally different.
Lots of mushrooms are really good to eat, and most of those are fairly simple ones. The common Meadow Mushroom, for example, is mainly plain white, sort of squatty, about 2 to 3 inches high. People who gather mushrooms always look for these. And the Morels, much beloved in Europe, are easy to identify, too. They are fairly tall, and the cap is not much bigger than the stem. The cap is wrinkled and pitted as well. And the Puffballs are big and round - the giants of the mushroom world.
There are also some mushrooms which are deadly - some of the most violent poisons in the world. Probably the worst group are the Amanitas. Many of these are brightly coloured, and very nice looking. But one of the most virulent is a lovely stately white one. Its name is the Destroying Angel. There are others, the Panther Amanita, the Poison Amanita, and so on.
Most (but not all) poisonous species have what is called a 'poison cup'. It has nothing to do with poison at all, but a lot of the deadly types do have it. The base of the stem is swollen into a sort of bulb, and around that some leftover skin which often looks a bit like a cup.
Mushroom poisoning does not make for a peaceful death. Violent cramping of the stomach, vomiting, diarrhea, degeneration of the liver, muscle cramping, and so on. For many mushrooms, the death rate is from 80 to 100%.
So, if you pick your own wild mushrooms, be sure that you can tell which are the dangerous ones. Leave them alone, if you are not sure, don't ever take a chance.
Even better, to be really really sure, buy them from your local grocer.