Pacific Northwest Fungi Forager
Mushroom hunting made easy
Poisonous Mushrooms of the PNW
Beginner foragers looking to focus their efforts on finding and identifying edible mushrooms while drastically reducing their risk of accidentally eating something poisonous should avoid mushrooms with these 6 features until they are more confident with the identification process:
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Mushrooms growing on the ground with blade-like or gills under the cap. Whitish gilled mushrooms are especially dangerous because several of the deadly mushrooms in our are are whitish and gilled.
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Yellowy to orange mushrooms with blade-like gills, like Sulpher Tuft which is very common in our area.
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Small mushrooms with brown caps, like the Deadly Gallerina and many of the hallucinagenic mushrooms that grow in our area.
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Mushrooms with caps that are lobed or brain-like, like the deadly Gyromitra Esculenta.
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Mushrooms with pores (instead of gills) that are or stain reddish.
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Mushrooms with a blackish center like the toxic Scleroderma bovista, or even edible Puffballs that are past their prime.
Not all mushrooms with these features are poisonous, some are delicious, they just require more advanced identification skills.
Click here for a list of great-for-beginners mushrooms.
Click here to start identifying
Expand a characteristic below to see common poisonous mushrooms in the PNW that share these features:
1. Growing on ground with blade-like gills
2. Yellow/orange with blade-like gills
3. Little brown caps
4. Lobbed or brain-like caps
5. Pores that are or stain reddish
6. Black center
