190 STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



MICHIGAN MUSHROOMS. 



A FEW OF THE COMMON EDIBLE FUNGI OCCURRING IN THE 



STATE. 



BY B. O. LONG YEAR. 



Bulletin No. 208. 



The alnmdanee and variety of fleshy fungi found growing in dooryards, 

 fields and woods at certain seasons of the year have doubtless attracted 

 the attention of many persons in this State. These plants are especially 

 numerous during the spring and autumn months and whenever there is 

 a plentiful rainfall during the summer. However, they are usually passed 

 by and left for the "worms" or scattered with a kick. Thus a free offering 

 frequently near our very door-step may be neglected or spurned while the 

 same product is being imported from foreign lands and sold for a high 

 price in the markets. Naturally the question arises why pay fifty cents 

 to one dollar a pound for mushrooms from France or for hot house grown 

 material when a generous su]>ply of the same, or of equally desirable 

 species, is going to waste about us? 



There are many persons in our State who would be glad to eat our 

 native mushrooms were it not for fear of poisoning. That this fear is 

 well founded is shown by the fact that many cases of severe illness and 

 even loss of life are annually recorded through carelessness in the indis- 

 criminate eating of fungi. 



Moreover the prevailing ignorance and superstition regarding these 

 plants have added to the uncertainty which seemed to attend their use 

 as food.' And while this fear has often served a useful purpose in restrain- 

 ing many persons from carelessness in the eating of mushrooms, it has 

 also prevented them from making use of a highly esteemed natural food 

 product, obtainable often without expense other than the effort necessary 

 to gather it. 



It is stated that in Germany the school children are regularly trained 

 in the matter of distinguishing the edible and poisonous s])ecies of fungi 

 so that they can readily identify them even when mixed together. Cer- 

 tainly there seems no good reason why the intelligence of the average 

 American should not enable him to learn to recognize a number of the 

 common edible mushrooms with which everyone who has access to woods 

 and fields is sure to meet. 



Moreover many of the fleshy fungi can be as easily and surely recog- 

 nized as our common fiowering plants. Were this more generally under- 

 stood and the fear from poisoning thereby removed the use of edible 

 fungi as food would certainly increase. 



