A lot of people forage for mushrooms here but I just don't trust my (lack of) knowledge. When I was out photographing in the forest the other day, I met a couple who were incredulous that I didn't have a basket with me. I found a lot of 'trompettes de la mort', Craterellus cornucopioides that I gave to them, they couldn't believe I didn't want to keep any.
Because on the other hand, I also know someone who was seriously ill when they got it wrong, even though they were very confident they knew what they were doing. We've had enough medical crises this year, I'll play safe and stick to photos.
Thinking of French names for fungus, the puffballs above (eyeball fungus to us) are called 'vesse-de-loup en poires'. A 'vesse' is what as children we called SBD (silent but deadly).
When starting out in fungi foraging it is worth learning two small sets of species - those which are deadly and those which are delicious. There are only a few which are deadly, death cap and destroying angel for example and it is essential to be able to identify these correctly to avoid danger. Forget any old folktales about how to identify edible species such as it will be safe to eat if other mammals eat them. There is probably a kernel of truth in some of the old advice but it is not a safe place to start.
In the delicious set stick to a small number of those which are easy to identify and don't have a poisonous doppleganger. The cep is fairly easy to identify and similar boletus species are also safe and delicious. There are some poisonous boletes out there like Satan's boletus but these are distinctive enough that you are unlikely to confuse it with edible ceps. Hedgehog fungus is one of my favourites because there is very little else out there which looks like it, is very tasty and it doesn't suffer from maggots.
I think I've probably tested your patience and hogged this thread enough, but one last one that made me smile. This is the moment the little slug saw the gardener approaching
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Because on the other hand, I also know someone who was seriously ill when they got it wrong, even though they were very confident they knew what they were doing. We've had enough medical crises this year, I'll play safe and stick to photos.
Thinking of French names for fungus, the puffballs above (eyeball fungus to us) are called 'vesse-de-loup en poires'. A 'vesse' is what as children we called SBD (silent but deadly).
I think you have found your calling @NormandyLiz your images are some of the best I've seen anywhere.
This comes with an uncropped shot that has my house keys behind to give you the scale
Pushing my lens and eyesight to the limit to get focus on these!
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful