I think the problem is less so identifying plums and cherries and more so identifying that they are not something which looks like a plum or cherry but is poisonous. I know what common fruits look like; I don't know which fruits don't have poisonous doppelgangers in my region.

abc.net.au links - are you in Australia?

I live in Tasmania and have been meaning to find an edible field guide to mushrooms or some such. Mushrooms here in Launceston are frequently popping out of the ground in my front and backyard and on the grass verges by the road, and if you walk anyway in the national parks and state forests you're up to your knees in mushrooms.

Would love to know if any of them are edible.

I'm in England, but there are death caps in Australia, which unfortunately were introduced along with oak trees.

You need an identification guide for your area (Tasmania, or perhaps all of Australia). Unless you can safely identify the species, you cannot be sure it is safe to eat, and should discard it. Identification is usually done using a dichotomous key, which involves checking for the presence or absence of a characteristic (which involves understanding some jargon), then another, until you're down to genus level. Then you check visually to identify the species. It's a bit like an expert system, except printed in a book.

In some countries in continental Europe, you can take wild mushrooms to a pharmacist for identification.

More than an identification guide, you need an experienced friend or someone who knows what they're doing. There are way too many poisonous mushrooms that look like edible ones (death cap/inky cap).

> More than an identification guide ...

Better than just an identification guide ...