Some important points on finding, foraging, and eating mushrooms

Some mushrooms are deadly poisonous. Others can cause serious liver or kidney damage. Some of these can look similar to edible mushrooms.

The most seriously poisonous mushrooms are pretty easy to identify. Learn these and don’t eat anything that you can’t tell apart from them. Don’t eat any mushroom without knowing the common lookalikes and how to tell them apart. You should not trust your identification unless you are knowledgable of the lookalikes.

Even if you misjudge your confidence, you can further decrease your chances of a serious illness by choosing to eat only a small amount of a mushroom that is new to you, and wait 24 hours. Even classically edible mushrooms can cause serious allergic reactions in some people. Eating some mushrooms with alcohol can cause illness.

Stay Safe

Let someone know where you’re going and when to expect you. Know the 10 Essentials and pack accordingly. Keep your phone charged. Download maps for your area. Don’t eat mushrooms found along busy roads or polluted areas.

Minimize your impact

We are not the only ones out there looking for mushrooms. 1 out of 20 people you see on a trail is probably also looking at mushrooms. Stay on trails when walking in heavily used areas like many local and state parks.

There is so much more that belongs here. Many of these I cover in my Terms link at the bottom of the page. I will continue to update this as I find better ways to summarize the most important points even better.