Do not eat it!

text and photos : by Norma A. Hubbard (October 2017)

I have always loved the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. As an artist, I also loved the illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. The wonderland Alice found herself in contained lots of unusual flora and fauna. I particularly like the drawing of the Caterpillar on top of a mushroom with Alice gazing up at him. I often feel a little Alice-like as I walk through my forest. This fall, with all the wet weather we have had, there seems to be some differences in the vegetation. Many plants are extra tall and spindly and there are many mushrooms – including a blue mushroom! As I examined the blue mushroom, the Caterpillar from Wonderland came to mind. I found myself saying to the mushroom (yes, I talk to nature) as the Caterpillar had asked of Alice, “Who are you?” or rather, “What are you?”

I don’t know about you, but I have never seen a blue mushroom. This unusual blue species is Lactarius indigo, or its common name, Indigo milk cap. It is not completely blue, just the gills, which is the underneath part of the cap of a mushroom; but it was so blue that I noticed it even with just a little bit of the blue showing. As the name suggests, Lactarius (milk cap) mushrooms have a milky substance when cut. The liquid is latex, and the latex is blue in Lactarius indigo. Milk caps come in various colours: white, orange, red and of course, blue. There are three or four species of orange Lactarius, which are more common than blue ones. Two common orange ones are Lactarius deliciosus and Lactarius thyinos. As there are many other orange and red mushrooms, the best way to know if they are milk caps, or Lactarius mushrooms, is to cut them and check for orange or reddish latex.

The Lactarius indigo that I found was only about 7-8 cm (3 inches) across the cap. It was growing under a section of pines, a common place to find mushrooms. Mushrooms are a fungus. Fungi are not plants; they are living organisms ECOSYSTEMS & BIODIVERSITY OF HEMMINGFORD and are classified as more similar to animals than plants. Mushrooms prefer moist soil conditions to grow, and unlike plants that require sunlight, they can grow without light, as they do not receive nutrients from chlorophyll. Fungi are an important part of a forest’s growth cycle as they decompose organic matter into soil. Mushrooms grow from spores and do not flower, hence they do not produce seeds. Although found in many parts of Eastern North America, Lactarius indigo are not common. Animals, such as deer, mice, and squirrels, along with snails, slugs and bugs, eat mushrooms for energy. Where I found my blue mushroom, it was the only one and at the rate that the slugs were eating it, I was lucky to have seen it. Sadly, it is not the best image since I only had my camera on my cellphone when I first sighted it and it was more chewed by the time I thought to return with my good camera. I did capture some interesting images of other mushrooms that I will not even venture to identify!

While slugs and animals might be able to eat whatever mushroom they want, without fear of poisoning, we need to be more careful. According to Thomas J. Volk, of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Lactarius indigo are edible and quite tasty. The taste and texture is similar to that of a portabella mushroom. However, there are poisonous wild mushrooms. Do not be like Alice and take the Caterpillar’s advice to eat unknown mushrooms hoping to get taller or smaller – that didn’t work out so well for Alice and it most likely will not for you either! Please do not eat any wild mushroom unless an expert tells you it is okay to eat it – I am not an expert. As always, I urge you to walk in nature and simply enjoy what you see.

Source: Carroll, Lewis. Alice Adventures in Wonderland; Forest Forgers (2017) www.forestforagers.co.uk/

Tom Volk’s Fungi (2017) botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/june2000.html