Trichothecenes, symptoms: Multi-organ failure, which can commence soon after exposure (such as through drinking an infusion), particularly bone marrow failure and lamellar desquamation (shredding and reddening) of palms, soles of feet and face. Death may occur.

"Any wild mushroom can be eaten - once."

I limit my foraging to the mushroom section of the grocery store.

And chanterelles have a number of at least moderately toxic lookalikes depending on the region you're in and how much an eager amateur is willing to stretch the definition. I don't think a lot of beginners can reliably tell the difference between "gills" and "folds."

Plus what you referred to about toxins leached from the tree that the mushroom was growing on. I'd not eat anything growing on a locust tree or a fallen rhododendron. Just seems like inviting trouble.

It's also imprecise in giving advice on precise growing conditions. E.g telling a beginner that no matter what they think, a given mushroom doesn't grow in summer is a good way of reducing misidentification.

Can anyone? The way you know it's a chanterelle is if it smells like apricots. The gill vs fold thing is kind of a red herring.

I'm sort of in the middle on the article. The chicken of the woods pictured is clearly old and woody -- you wouldn't want to pick it. Small amanitas can look like puffballs, so you cut them in half if you're unsure. And the article is not a complete guide -- you'd need a little bit of supplementary info (in my opinion) to correctly nail the oysters and the king bolete, but:

Even if someone just used these pictures and description as a guide, they're not going to die -- barring some kind of freak reaction, the worst that'll happen is they'll get it a (rare) tummyache. It has happened to me maybe twice in my 10 years of foraging and it was hardly the riskiest thing I've done with my body.

That's what the article means by "safest". They're not saying "perfectly safe" but "if you're going to start, start with these, the risk is the lowest." I think you're kind of overreacting.

Then again, I could be underestimating the incompetence of the average person.

About me: I pick and eat mushrooms all the time all over the world, and sometimes sell them to restaurants.

Of course, but unfortunately many articles like this one fail to add a note like this to their disclaimers. It's easy to forget during and after the excitement of a mushroom hunt.

I think you're kind of overreacting.

I probably wouldn't have posted a reply if I didn't make the same mistake myself years ago. In my first five years of foraging I was less careful than I was after the incident I mentioned. I have never misidentified any mushroom I've ever consumed and have eaten many dozens of species. However, after getting very ill that one time (violent vomiting and diarrhea) I have become a lot more cautious when consuming new wild mushrooms (heeding to Arora's advice to try small amounts first). In light of my personal experience I found the article to be a bit light on words of caution, especially for novices.

There is no such thing as "overreacting" with foraged mushrooms. The bar for "competent" identification is far too high, and the downside of being not-quite-competent-enough includes spending 72 hours knowing that you and your friends are going to die with no hope of a cure.

As a random aside, a crap-ton of flowers are toxic. Flowers. If somebody hadn't told me that, I'd be eating random ones I find on hikes, because I heard of edible flowers and for some dumb reason I thought they all were.

It depends on the intentions of the site. If the author is advertising it as a complete guide, then I agree with you: it's incomplete as a guide. If he's advertising it as a starting point -- start with these mushrooms which have a very low risk of harm -- then it's fine in my view.

Sure, but if I buy food from a store or a farmers market, I can at least assume the food was sourced properly, and they aren’t mushrooms that grew on something bad.

If you pay attention to everything in the article you're probably fine. But if your eyes glaze over and you latch on to a couple of the things mentioned for a given mushroom, less so.

I agree, despite having almost certain knowledge of at least a few of the safer types, I'd never pick mushrooms from the wild.

The consequences of even one badie getting into the mix can be too horrible to contemplate. Often there's no antidote and you're dead within days.

Some of the tastiest mushrooms are also the most recognizable, like morels. If you want them foraging is the only option for most people. Morels have no reliable farming methods as far as I know

Foraging for mushrooms is an awful lot of fun. In many European cities, you are often able to bring all your mushrooms to the local food market mushroom expert and have them identified. It's a great service.

The problem comes when neophyte beginners decide to go hunting for mushrooms. They may think they've a good understanding of what's safe and often they do but it's the odd slipup or mistake that can turn fatal.

With mushrooms there is no margin for error, you're either right and enjoy a lovely meal or you die by a lingering death. It only takes one error for disaster to occur.

Take this story for instance: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-06/fatal-mushroom-meal-c.... Unfortunately, it's often a change of circumstance, or an unusual set of events that catches people out. I remember this accident happening, tragically similar scenarios have happened all too frequently in many countries.

If you're experienced and aware of the existence of gyromitra, you'll probably do just fine. But I totally understand if people don't feel confident that they'd make the right call. The colours looks obviously different on those pictures, but try looking at some other pictures to get an idea of the colour variations.

I don't want to put people off foraging for mushrooms, because I absolutely agree with you that many of the tastiest kinds are rarely available without foraging (more often available at markets than in stores, but inconsistently certainly; even gyromitra can be bought at markets in some countries), but better that people are well aware of the potential for misidentification so they seek proper advice and learn how to distinguish them first (and are aware that the risk factors varies greatly between regions depending on which similar mushrooms exists there).

[1] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Mushrooms-Gyromitra-Escu...

And discussion on HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21287736

Or maybe she just stuck to easily identifiable as edible mushrooms, like chanterelles, funnel chanterelles, penny buns and hedgehog mushroom..