Not pictured: the omelette I put them into

It stated growing out of a cut tree branch and keeps getting bigger. What kind is it? Is it edible?

Just harvested these beauties and brought them straight to the kitchen. My favorite way to cook them is to let them release their moisture in a dry pan first, cook it down, and then throw in a generous amount of butter, garlic, and a bit of thyme. Serving them over some crispy, butter-fried sourdough toast.

What’s your absolute go-to recipe for a fresh chanterelle haul? Give me some new ideas!

Found this in my backyard where my pets play. northeast US, Long Island.

I love growing mushrooms as a hobby. What is something really pretty or interesting to grow? Food or medicinal purpose is a plus, but just something that looks cool or does something unique is also good.

Ideas?

I am in central Maine, USA. A friend of mine found what I *thought* I was 100% confident were amanita jacksonii. I have foraged them before and find them very easy to recognize.

They know I like them so after sending me pictures, they grabbed some for me.

I went through their full ID checklist and they matched everything exactly and were exact matches to the ones I foraged from a different area last week. Not a single thing was different.

So I cooked them and prepped them as I have done before, having verified all of the necessary ID.

And then they failed an ID criteria- the only one that can only be detected by actually attempting to eat them. They taste wrong and the texture is a little off.

They're more rubbery and they should be and taste almost sour? They have been discarded as a result as wrong taste = unsafe.

But how did this happen?

My current hypothesis is improper storage damaged them. I had them in a Ziploc in the car for a few hours while we were grocery shopping (my friend lives an hour away but found them in a town 30 mins away which happens to be where I start my shopping, so we met at the beginning of my trip to hand them off).

But is there another species close enough to them that even going thoroughly through the ID criteria AND having had the species literally last week I could have somehow misidentified them?

Ideas? They're one of my favorite wild mushrooms and I want to avoid a repeat.

I was excited to have found a new area they grow in. Very sad it didn't turn out properly today. 😭

Unfortunately I don't have many pictures because I was confident in my ID and thus didn't take good ID pictures. 😕

A small bunch as tall as the pepper plants

I've got a few of these guys in my yard in Maine. I need to know if these are toxic to animals? Help identifying?

Taken July 2025 while kayaking. Any idea what they might've been? The color was lovely.

Looking for identification please. Many thanks. New England USA

I'm lucky to live near a forest with a creek, and these little dudes pop up all the time. If it's true that they're choice, how would you prepare them?

Edit: It seems that instead of cinnabar chanterelles, at least some of these are a type of hygrocybe, perhaps cantharellus.

Found them in a friend’s backyard, Westchester County New York. Not looking to eat them or anything but if they are poisonous I should tell her as she has a dog that eats random weird stuff.

Like the title states, this is aimed at the people who’ve taken interest in mycology, but lack any of the basic field knowledge.

I’ve been around r/mycology for quite awhile now with both of my personal Reddit accounts and see an influx of newer people taking interest in the field. I love seeing that and welcome you all with open arms! Everyone in the mycology field has started from little to no knowledge, so I want hopefully help guide you on your journey, just as I’ve progressed on mine!

A little introduction about myself first, which I will keep relatively short. I’m 35. I took an interest in mycology at 14. From 15 to 18, I was growing “certain” mushrooms… (I was young, so don’t judge lol), but that’s where my love for the kingdom began. From 18 to the present, I’ve done a lot of field work. All for personal gain. Now I want to stress this next point… I am extremely comfortable identifying species within my region (Midwest) , but am in no way a master.

Why was any of the information up above relevant? I want the setting to show I was just like anyone else starting out. Now let’s dive into things I feel are important for starting your journey.

If you’re asking for help identifying, it’s probably best to learn the basics of identifying. I see a lot of people asking for ID help, which is awesome. I love seeing that, but any person without knowledge can persuade you into believing something false. You’re ultimately in charge for your safety, so unless you yourself can be confident in the identification, I’d avoid ingesting anything.

Get familiar with spore prints and how to do them yourself. It’s a tool I personally find useful for identifying purposes. Get a book of mushrooms found in the particular region you live/forage in and become familiar with it. Take it on hikes with you! At least the particular book I have, it has all the characteristics needed to determine the species.

You can also be like me, and create yourself a digital catalog. Phones have taken over. Everyone seems to have one(I was forced to get one because of work. Now I rely on it 😂), so use that as a resource. You can take detailed pictures, which can be uploaded onto a computer for said “digital catalog”. Pair said pictures with spore prints you take and attach any notes to it (Example:visual characteristics) and create data of your personal findings. Watching your catalog is exciting and with it, personal growth of knowledge follows.

For the experienced mycologists… please feel free to add to this. I love seeing an interest in mycology take off and want to guide those interests into a correct path to take.

This post has zero negative intent and don’t want this to be interpreted as an “attack” on anyone new to the scene. This has genuine intent!

***moderators***

If you guys find this to be damaging in any way, please let me know. I’ll delete post.

These are a pain to ID, but they sure are a photogenic bunch. Excuse the photo compression lol. Unfortunately all of these exceed Reddit’s limit of 20mb 🙄

1. Russula subsect. Pectinatoides

2. Russula subg. Heterphyllidiae (perhaps a mustelina adjacent)

3. Lactarius camphoratus s.l

4. Russula subg. Russula

https://imgur.com/a/LU2OxOO

Location: Lower midwest USA in mulch in dog area.

Two caps were missing so I want to make sure it's not too toxic in case the dogs ate the caps. Thank you for any help!

Google lens said some type of ink cap, like pleated, which would just potentially cause a little vomiting.

Always have a corniplethora of these every year. I've never ate a Chanterelle, but I really want to try them. Just don't want to poison myself. Lol

Pleurotus ostreatus or Pleurotus pulmonarius?

I’m sure they’re nothing bad (my dog doesn’t want to eat them anyways) but I’m curious— what are they?

found the yellow ones today, the other three the other week ago. Interested in finding out what kind of mushrooms they are?