Mushroom stuff is the blog of an amateur mushroom hunter. I live in South East London so it’s mostly blogs about fungi forays there and in Kent, but also West Sussex, Ireland and Wales occasionally.

When I find a mushroom and post a blog about it, I’ll say what species I think it is. I’m an amateur with a lot of experience of some species and very little of others, so what I say could be wrong! Actually that’s half the fun of this website; an ongoing demonstration of the problems and solutions of mushroom identification. Something I’ll log for each mushroom is my assessment of the probability of my identification being correct. Of course that’s subjective, but it should dissuade you from believing all my guesses.

I prefer to use the common names of mushrooms where possible. I know mycologists will scorn this, as it can lead to confusion, but that’s my preference… it brings the mushrooms closer to the people. However, many mushrooms have no common name so then the only option is to use the Latin one. I notice that there’s been a real effort to coin common names for as many species as possible in recent years and I thoroughly approve.

Health Warning: as you know, some mushroom species are deadly. “Deadly” means “will kill you”. Half of a Deathcap will probably do that. However, if you are careful and stick to edible species that cannot be mistaken for poisonous ones, then it is possible to be completely safe. The closest I ever came to eating something poisonous was when I found some nice looking Yellow Stainers that I found somewhere in Leicestershire early in my career. Somehow I had convinced myself that they were an edible Agricus species but then I had a realization, cut one down the middle, and saw the tell-tale yellow stem base.

I do divulge all my foray locations, although it does make me nervous.  The thought of someone reading my blog, turning up at one of my best venues the day before me, and stripping it bare of Ceps and Horns of Plenty is pure horror. But I do still want to contribute to the sum of human knowledge – it’s nice to think that an inexperienced mushroom finder might discover some mushrooms in Ladywell Fields, and identify them with the help of one of my pages.