Subject: Blewits (Clitocybe) in North Carolina?

From: Bill Chestnut <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 Nov 1995 22:24:19 GMT

Hello all;

With this incredibly rainy fall, the yard and surrounding pine woods on 
my property are full of mushrooms. The amanitas and boletes are easy, 
but I have one predominant mushroom growing in the pine straw/debris in 
beds and forest.

The cap is purplish brown to brown and the margin becomes ragged with 
age. It is convex when young, becoming flat and with an indentation and 
slightly scaly at maturity. The gills are a bright, light purple when 
young, changing to the same purple-brown as the cap with age. The gills 
are attached to the stalk and extend down the stalk with age. Spore 
print of a large specimen gave a light purple print. The stalk does not 
have a ring, is bulbous at the base, and becomes somewhat shaggy with 
age.
 
 Is this the Blewit, Clitocybe nuda, or one of it's relatives (edible, 
hopefully)? Anyone in the NC(Raleigh) area having positively ID'd this 
beast? I've got several pounds of them growing in my flowerbeds!!

Thanks in advance to any replies.
Bill Chestnut
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Larry Caldwell)
Date: 7 Nov 1995 01:08:48 -0800

In article <[email-masked]>,

> beast? I've got several pounds of them growing in my flowerbeds!!

It sounds like you've gotten close enough to start testing.  Eat only
a very small amount to start, and gradually increase the amount you
eat.  Wait 24 hours between tests.  

I've eaten lepista nuda (clitocybe nuda) and have found the flavor to
be highly variable.  Sometimes the flavor is so strong as to be
unpleasant.  Other times it is acceptable, but I wouldn't place this
as one of the real gourmet species.  If the taste in NC is different
>from  Oregon I'd be very interested to hear about it.

-- Larry Caldwell           [email-masked]
   Myrtle Creek, Oregon

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From: [email-masked] (Bob Galvan)
Date: 7 Nov 1995 07:56:49 -0800

In article <[email-masked]>,

>eat.  Wait 24 hours between tests.  

I disagree heartily!  My impression from the written discription, now 
vanished in the bit-bucket, was that it "sounds like a Cortinarious to me".

I recommend you find someone who can ID it for sure, in person, before you 
eat it.   Long distance mushroom ID is good for suggestions, but it has 
severe limitations. 

"If in doubt, throw it out."
			    -Johnnie Cochran 8^)

Bob Galvan
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Larry Caldwell)
Date: 9 Nov 1995 23:43:06 -0800

> vanished in the bit-bucket, was that it "sounds like a Cortinarious to me".

Cortinarii are mycorrhizal with trees.
Cortinarii have a rusty brown spore print.
Cortinarii have a veil. (cortina)
Cortinarii have a solitary to scattered fruiting habit.

Nope, we can rule that one out.
 
> eat it.   Long distance mushroom ID is good for suggestions, but it has 

I recommend you don't eat anything you can't identify yourself.  In this
case, Bill had already done 99% of the ID.  The chief danger is that
he had confused these specimens with a related clitocybe or possibly an
entoloma if he got the spore print wrong.

"Finding someone who can ID it for sure" is of variable reliablity,
and can lead to a false sense of confidence.

In any case, wild mushrooms are never safe to eat unless tested.  On a
duck hunting trip I once encountered a large fruiting of suillus luteus
and cooked up a real gourmet camp meal of mushroom stuffed mallard.
Four of us enjoyed the meal, while the fifth member of the party became
violently ill and vomited for hours.

I no longer feed wild mushrooms to untested people.  I had never heard of
an emetic reaction to slippery jacks, but in this case I was obviously 
over-optimistic.

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From: [email-masked] (Fred Lessing)
Date: 10 Nov 1995 18:15:12 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] says...
>but I have one predominant mushroom growing in the pine straw/debris in 
(snip)  

>beast? I've got several pounds of them growing in my flowerbeds!!

Well, I'll follow what all the other repliers have said before about 
beingf cautious! Still, it sounds pretty much like the blewits we get 
here in Portugal. However, I find their taste rather unpleasant - 
sweetish, like mould or decaying leaves. I wonder whether that's to do 
with the environment they grow in? (beech trees, Luistanian 
oak, eucalypts, umbrella pines, acacia...)

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From: [email-masked] (Sigvard Svensson)
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 1995 00:56:18 +0100

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Larry
Caldwell) 
wrote:

(cut)

>an emetic reaction to slippery jacks, but in this case I was obviously 
Just a comment first to the original posting: Do not ever gamble with
fungi as food!
As some of the earlier replies wrote "if in doubt, through it out"!

Concerning emetic reactions to Suillus species I remember seeing something
about the slimy cap cuticle being responsible. I could not find the
reference just now, though. Furthermore  people tend to be VERY
individually sensitive to mushrooms. A friend of mine can not eat
chanterelles, another is getting ill if he eats Russulas...!
I completely agree with your final statement!

Sigvard

-- 
____________________________________________

"...with all this horse manure, there's just got
to be a pony in there somewhere."
(Technology Review Nov/Dec 95 p66)
____________________________________________

Sigvard Svensson
Mycologist, IT-Adviser, SDA
E-mail: [email-masked]
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From: [email-masked] (Lorelei Norvell)
Date: 10 Nov 1995 08:53:15 -0800

Re Cortinarius:

	Ahem.  Larry is correct in all but one statement.  Cortinarii 
also can be found in large cespitose clusters.  It depends on the 
Cortinarius.

> > >> hopefully)? Anyone in the NC(Raleigh) area having positively ID'd this 
....> > I disagree heartily!  My impression from the written discription, 
now 
> Lorelei Norvell