View A43-1112-1979-eng.pdf

EDIBLE AND POISONOUS MUSHROOMS OF CANADA
In classifying fungi or other plants, botanists try to group together those
forms that are thought to be closely related, and in general it is beUeved that
the fungi bearing gills, or more properly lamellae, are more closely related /to
each other than to those not bearing lamellae. The species bearing lamellae are
grouped by mycologists in a family, the Agaricaceae, and therefore the use of
the term mushroom for these fungi gives it a popular meaning roughly equiva-
lent to the family Agaricaceae.
'Toadstool' is another popular term that is frequently used and it too
means different things to different people. To some it means any fungus except
the field mushroom or cultivated mushroom, to others it is any inedible or
poisonous fungus. Scientifically the term has no meaning at all since species
related closely in a botanical sense may be either edible or poisonous. We can
avoid confusion by dropping the term 'toadstool' altogether and speaking only
of edible and poisonous mushrooms.
The structure that we call a mushroom is in reality only the fruiting body
of the fungus. The vegetative part of the plant consists of a system of branching
threads and cord-like strands that ramify through the soil, manure, or other
material on which the fungus may be growing. This vegetative part is called
Pileus
Lamellae
Partial Ve
becom
Stipe
Volva
Figure 1 . Diagram of a section of an amanita illustrating the principal parts of a mushroom.
Young plant on left, mature plant on right.