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Old 19-03-2010, 07:59 PM
SheffieldLass SheffieldLass is offline
Commander of the Wild Empire
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Near Scarborough
Posts: 2,077
Re: from the Peak District to Slovakia

I'm not sure whether your post comes under the edibility rules or not, but I will refer you to 2 old WAB threads which you might find interesting. Probably covers the basic points about False Morels. They are discussions about edibility/poisonous ones rather than asking whether a particular fungus with picture attached is edible.

Toxicity of Mycena Pura - Lilac Bonnet

Contradictory Fungi books?

What is also interesting is that if you do a google search on WAB for False Morel, most come up referring to Gyromitra esculenta, but one calls Helvella crispa False Morel too, so I think the moral of the story is, that discussions of edibility or otherwise can become very confused, particularly if the same common names are used for more than one species. Or where nations/books views on the edibility or otherwise of a particular species are contradictory. And probably why WAB has this rule, to protect its own backside if someone gets wrong information off WAB, in terms of incorrect id or incorrect information on edibility.

Anyway, enjoy your time in Slovakia, and learn as much from the people there, but do double check their knowledge too ... often it is handed down through the generations and can be quite suspect .... A local guy to me, whose father came from Poland (I think, or possibly Czechoslovakia), was really into fungi, very good at id, had studied the books as well as learning from his Dad, and was saying how many of his father's and grandfather's 'rules' on fungi, on which were and were not edible were extremely dodgy! Would rule in some that were really poisonous.

Melanie
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