We strongly recommend foraging with someone experienced, or looking at pictures and descriptions from several online or printed resources to be sure of identification before harvesting and eating. An awesome visual guide for mushroom identification and information regarding edibility, is the book, “All that the Rain Promises and More” by David Arora.
Eating a poisonous mushroom can kill you; edible and medicinal mushrooms can be life savers, so mushrooms are worth learning about, and some are pretty easy to identify, once you know their characteristics.
This web page does not purport to teach mushroom identification! Bluebird Forest Garden and the author of this content assume no liability for improper identification of wild foods.
About mushrooms that grow out of the soil: Some people believe that it’s best not to harvest the whole mushroom, but rather cut it off at the ground level. This is not necessary, and with some mushrooms, especially the coral mushrooms, it’s quite wasteful because that’s where the solid, meaty base is. Taking a whole mushroom out of the ground is just like taking a whole apple with the stem off of a tree; it doesn’t hurt the tree. Mushrooms that grow on trees and stumps, however, often grow again if the bases and too-tough-to eat parts are left attached to the wood.
These beautiful yellow coral mushrooms filled a nine-inch skillet!
Bear’s Head Mushroom (Hericium abietis) This tooth fungus grows on dead or dying evergreen trees. It will grow back on the same tree year after year. It is similar to Lion’s Mane, but with no cap on the top.
Chanterelle These are a delicious, fairly well known and sought after mushroom. I’ve found them growing in dark forests of mixed evergreens including cedar trees. They are creamy, yellow or light yellow-brown. They are vase shaped with a smooth, bowl or funnel shaped topside. There is a type of chanterelle that’s not edible; it has a flaky topside and a hollow stem. One defining trait of both types of chanterelle are the small, mostly parallel, wavy ridges on the underside of chanterelles. These ridges branch somewhat, and extend partway down the stem. Edible chanterelles have a sweet “apricot” smell and a delicious, sweetish taste as well.
Chicken of the Woods This is a shelf polypore mushroom that grows on stumps and dead trees, evergreen or decidious. You can cut of the tender parts and leave the rest to grow more next season. It can be yellow to orange to redish.
Coral Mushrooms These delicious mushrooms come in yellow or light brown. I’ve found them growing in dark forests of mixed evergreens including cedar trees. They have solid bases from which grow an amazing array of branching arms that resemble coral, or the branching antlers of a deer in velvet, only there are dozens of ‘points’ or little arms reaching upward. They can be very hard to clean because of the detail of the little openings between the branches, but well worth the effort.
Greening Goat’s Foot (Albatrellus Ellisii) This is an amazing, hearty mushroom I just started eating in 2019. I’ve found them growing in dark forests of mixed evergreens including cedar trees. They are large, asymetrical or oval shaped, dark brown and rough on the topside. They resemble a well cooked, thick pancake growing on a thick, whitish stalk. See upper left in photo below. A distinguishing trait is the appearance of pores (which are actually closely set teeth) on the underside, instead of gills.
King Bolete Mushroom This is one of the most prized mushrooms across the world. It is round, thick brownish, with a thick, slightly bulging stalk. Boletes are polypores, meaning that they have a multitude of tiny holes on the underside instead of gills.
Lobster Mushroom This is actually a parasitic fungus that grows on other mushrooms. It can even convert toxic mushrooms into an edible delicacy! They get their name because they are orange on the outside, white on the inside and supposedly taste like lobster, too. They are solid, lumpy and can be various shapes depending on the host mushroom that they are growing on. I’ve found these growing in fairly dense to dense mixed evergreen forests.
Meadow Mushroom (Pink Bottom) As it’s name implies this mushroom grows in more sunny, grassy areas. I’ve found them in my garden, under fruit trees. They are a very typical looking mushroom — domed white top, a white stalk with a little ring around it, and gills that are light pink in color and not attached to the stalk. To help identify, tap the mushroom while holding it upright over a piece of white paper. The spores should make a brown to black spore print on the paper.
Morel This is another delicious and commonly sought after mushroom. I’ve found it growing in dense, mixed forests, as well as recently cleared areas. It is also reported to grow prolifically in recently burned forests. It is a unique mushroom, cone-shaped, hollow, with a geometrically quirky exterior — connecting, raised ridges, that are flat on the top of the ridge, joining to make all kinds of geometric shapes.
Snowbank False Morel This is one of the first edible mushrooms to come up in the spring (as the name snowbank implies!). These mushrooms must be cooked to be safe to eat. As you can see in the photo the base is wavy and nearly as wide as the top, distinguishing them from inedible false morels, which have a narrower, hollow round stem.
Shaggy Mane (Ink Cap) These mushrooms are cone shaped, with a flaky appearance due to the upturned scales on the outside of the cap. The cap is slightly disconnected from the stem at the bottom. They are white with brownish or grey speckles. They don’t last very long and when they decompose they leave black inky stains on the ground or foliage underneath them. I’ve found them growing under a fir tree in a disturbed area.
Hollow-stemmed Tamarack Jack (Suillus cavipes) These polypore mushrooms are among the best tasting mushrooms, in my opinion. I find them in woods that have Western Larch, or Tamarak, trees, in spring and fall. They have yellow sponge-like tissues with lots of holes on the underside. As the mushroom grows the holes expand and become geometrically interesting, mostly enlogated hexagons. The caps are slightly rough and brown, like a well cooked pancake, not slimy.
Turkey Tail This shelf polypore grows in overlapping layers or shelves and can be various colors from gray to brown. Some people powder them and drink them in tea, others use them as medicine.