In autumn, it is natural that many foragers engage in mushroom picking in the woods and on the fields. The most important rule for mushroom pickers is that one should under no circumstances pick even a single mushroom that one is not sure of!
There are many types of wild mushrooms, including poisonous ones (you can read more about this in the previous section of The Mushroom School), inexperienced foragers can easily confuse the wild champignon that grows on the fields with the poisonous: fly agaric (ie. Amanita muscaria).
Of course, experts can easily tell the difference between champignon and the poisonous mushrooms. The cap of the white fly agaric is with white wart-like spots, it has a cup-like base from which the stem emerges with shaggy rings of scales around it and a large skirt. Although they are quite poisonous, people very rarely die from consuming it. They are also known for their hallucinogenic properties with psychoactive neurotoxic constituents. The champignon only has a collar, and the stems are not thickened at all.
Another poisonous mushroom that the champignon is easily being confused with is the Amanita phalloides, which unfortunately causes fatal poisoning in most cases, as it contains cellular poison, which irrevocably damages the liver and kidneys. When the first signs of poisoning appear, 10-12 hours after consumption, the toxin has already been absorbed, and even gastric lavage would not help. In addition, other edible mushrooms can also be confused with the Amanita phalloides: the stubble mushroom, the pigeon’s egg and the crow’s curd.
We, at Boglar Champ, grow only pleurotus and champignon, the two most widespread mushrooms in the world. By being cultivated, the dilemma of confusing them with a poisonous mushroom is out of the question. Therefore, if you are not an experienced mushroom picker, it is not worth taking the risk: we recommend buying them in the store.
In the first article of The Mushroom School series, I wrote about the pleurotus and about mushrooms in general, and in the second article, I came up with some interesting and useful information about the champignon. In a previous blog article, I also wrote about the misconceptions about mushrooms, read more here.
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