DO YOU know your Cep from your Chanterelle? Or have you ever come face to face with a Destroying Angel?
A new publication Forest Fungi of Irelandwas launched yesterday to ensure people are no longer in the dark about mushrooms.
The publication from Coford, the forest research council, is aimed at those interested in mushroom collecting and cooking. Foraging for mushrooms has been a popular activity in other European countries for some time but interest in the activity has grown here in recent times.
The book outlines more than 40 edible mushroom species found in Ireland. They have all been eaten by the authors Paul Dowding and Louis Smith, in the interests of research.
It lists another 13 mushroom species best avoided as they may cause gastric upset to some people, or they could be confused with poisonous species. And it highlights 11 poisonous mushrooms that must never be eaten.
A website www.fungus.ie also gives details on dangerous mushrooms and points out that the number of potentially poisonous fungi is much greater than the list of edible types.
Some of the most common edible types include the Morel, the Wood Blewitt, the Horn of Plenty and the Giant Puffball. Dangerous mushrooms include Satan’s Bolete, the Death Cap, the Destroying Angel and the Yellow Stainer.
While there have been a few deaths as a result of magic mushrooms in recent years, the National Poisons Centre at Beaumont hospital in Dublin said death by accidentally ingesting poison mushrooms was very rare in Ireland.
A spokeswoman recalled two serious cases which needed hospitalisation in the past 12 years. Both patients recovered.
To date this year, the centre has received six phonecalls about mushrooms, while 13 were received last year. In many cases, people were trying to establish if a mushroom was safe to eat.
Last year, Nicholas Evans, the author of The Horse Whisperer, and his wife were hospitalised in Aberdeen after eating a rare species of poisonous mushroom they had gathered on a woodland walk, while on holidays in the Highlands.
