Let’s go mushroom hunting in the forest! Mushrooms are one of the most exciting things to learn how to forage, but it can be an intimidating and sometimes dangerous practice. Learn how to identify and forage for wild mushrooms, even if you are a beginning mushroom hunter. These five easy to identify edible mushrooms are a great place to start on your wild mushroom journey!
Wildcrafting Weeds
If you want to learn more about the edible and medicinal weeds that surround us and how to use them, check out my eBook: Wildcrafting Weeds: 20 Easy to Forage Edible and Medicinal Plants (that might be growing in your backyard)!
Gather & Root Online Foraging Course
My online foraging course is a great way to learn about wild edible and medicinal plants! Learn more about the gather + root online foraging course here.
Mushroom Hunting for Beginners
Mushroom hunting can be a bit scary, especially if you’re a beginner. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it, though. Everyone has to start somewhere!
I always advise that beginners should first start mushroom foraging by simply paying attention. Observe the different mushrooms that you may see, and consult a guidebook as you go along.
Don’t pick or eat any mushroom that you find until you verify what the mushroom is with an experienced mushroom hunter, even if you think you know what it is.
Here are the five varieties of edible mushrooms that I recommend people start with: oysters, morels, boletes, lobster, and chanterelles.
I chose these five because they are relatively easy to identify once you know what to look for, are somewhat common, and are super tasty!
But First! Get a Mushroom Guidebook
The first thing that anyone who is interested in mushroom foraging should do is buy a mushroom identification guidebook.
One of my favorites is All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora. It has good pictures and great descriptions, while still being small enough to easily carry on the trail.
This Field Guide to North American Mushrooms from the National Audubon Society looks like another great option too.
Related: 12 Best Books on Foraging and Wildcrafting
Easy to Identify Edible Mushrooms
Before we get into the five easy to identify edible mushrooms, I want to clarify something, and that is…
Mushrooms with Gills are Tricky
Four out of five of these mushrooms do not have regular gills.
This is because mushrooms with gills can be very hard to distinguish from one another, and several of them are poisonous.
In fact, the death cap and destroying angel can kill you with just a couple of bites!
Way better to be safe than sorry.
Oyster mushrooms are the only ones in this group that do have regular gills, and I explain what makes them different below.
Oyster Mushrooms
As I mentioned, oyster mushrooms are the only mushrooms with gills that I recommend anyone to forage, unless you are a highly skilled mycologist.
This is because oyster mushrooms almost always grow on dead wood, such as trees, stumps, or downed logs.
While they sometimes appear to be growing out of the ground from wood chips or other substrate, I would not trust that they are oysters unless you find them on wood.
Oyster mushrooms grow in shelf like clusters, usually on hardwoods, but sometimes on conifers.
They generally like cooler weather, so spring and fall are the best times to find them. They are quite common, and very tasty!
Read more about oysters in my post Foraging for Oyster Mushrooms.
Oyster mushrooms
Morel Mushrooms
Morel mushrooms are the darling of many edible mushroom hunters, and for good reason! They are fun to forage for, and for some reason when they are found the excitement is huge!
Maybe it’s because they pop up in the springtime and we are all yearning for wild mushrooms by then.
Morels like south facing hillsides and are typically found in sunny patches. They also commonly come up in areas that have been recently burned.
They are one of the easier mushrooms to identify, as nothing looks quite like them.
Morel mushrooms have a pitted and deeply ridged, honeycomb like cap, and are completely hollow when cut in half.
Morel mushrooms need to be cooked before eaten.
There are some mushrooms that are called “false morels” that are somewhat similar in resemblance, but they are not hollow. They are not so toxic as to kill you with only a few bites, but they can definitely cause a lot of gastric distress.
Read more about morels in my post Foraging for Morel Mushrooms.
Morel mushroom
King Bolete Mushrooms
Bolete mushrooms are fun to find, and there are several tasty varieties.
King boletes (Boletus edulis) are also known as porcini mushrooms, which are possibly the tastiest of them all!
Boletes will usually show up in late spring, summer, or fall, depending on your location. We found many boletes during the summertime in the high sierras.
Boletes do not have gills under their cap, but rather a yellow or brownish spongy surface of pores.
The stem is usually quite thick and can sometimes be bulbous. There are often worms or maggots in boletes, so give them a once over before throwing them in the pan!
There are many species of boletes, and be aware that a few are toxic. Some of the toxic varieties will turn blue when cut or bruised, and many of them also have a spongy surface of pores that is red in color.
Here is a great post showing many varieties of boletes from The 3 Foragers.
King bolete mushroom (photo by Karen Kraczewski of The 3 Foragers)
Lobster Mushrooms
Lobster mushrooms are cool because they actually aren’t mushrooms at all. Instead, they are a fungus that grows on certain species of mushrooms, engulfing its host.
They are especially common in the Pacific Northwest, and they are quite unmistakable once found!
Lobster mushrooms have a hard red to orange exterior and a white interior, thus resembling a lobster.
The best part about lobster mushrooms is that there are no poisonous look-alikes at all!
Read more about lobsters in my post Foraging for Lobster Mushrooms.
Lobster mushroom
Chanterelle Mushrooms
Chanterelle mushrooms are perhaps my favorite mushrooms to forage. While finding any wild edible mushroom is exciting, I get an extra little charge from chanterelles. They are beautiful and delectable!
They are typically found in the fall after the first rains, but in some areas with higher humidity they can be found throughout the summer.
Chanterelle mushrooms are yellow to orange in color, and have blunt ridges that fork and run down the stem rather than true gills.
The stems are solid, the flesh is white, and they have a fruity aroma.
There is another variety of chanterelles that are similar in appearance, but have hollow stems. They are called winter or yellowfoot chanterelles.
There are two possible chanterelle look alikes that are poisonous, the jack-o’-lantern and false chanterelle.
Both of these have true gills rather than blunt ridges, so that is key to properly distinguishing a true chanterelle.
Read more about chanterelles in my post Foraging for Chanterelle Mushrooms.
Chanterelle mushrooms
Well, there you have it! Five easy to identify edible mushrooms, perfect for the beginning mushroom forager.
Please consult your guidebooks, go with an experienced mushroom hunter, and start foraging!
Can you do a post on mushrooms in Arkansas? I am stuck here and am never able to identify edibles other than the basics. P.S. there is a golden gill bolete here and it is very tasty! ;}
Hi Camilla. I’m sorry, I don’t live near Arkansas or know what kind of mushrooms grow there. I would try to find a mushroom foraging book that covers your region.
if you’ve had a horrible fire and it’s wiped out everything do the Boletes ,Chanterelles, Oysters, and Lobsters, come back and if so how long does it take. I live in Northern California by the Oregon border.
Hi Lannie. Morels are the only mushroom I know of that pop up in fire-scorched areas. Chanterelles and oysters do tend to come back year after year in the same places. Whether or not their occurrence is more prevalent due to fire, isn’t known.
This is not appropriate for European readers because the common names are different.
I enjoyed this article and am familiar with 4 of the ones you picked, was just curious tho as the bolete and lobster could be confusing to an amateur whereas I’ve found two very easily identifiable ones are coral and lions mane which both have no poisonous relatives and might be easier to find
I was confused for a moment when you said that the only poisonous boletes were the ones that bruise blue and/or have the red tinge or bleed red, then I realized I was thinking of milk caps, where those characteristics are of an edible species. I love your website! It’s so information-packed, aesthetically pleasing, exciting, inspiring, and more!
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you’re enjoying being here!
We have a ton of mushrooms in our back yard wooded area but it’s so hard to tell if they are edible or not. Could you help me?!?!
I’m sorry. It’s really difficult to identify mushrooms with only images alone. I suggest you check out a mushroom field guide like All That the Rain Promises and More.
I have found a mushroom and when I had looked it was it showed me it was a chicken mushroom. Have you ever hear of this kind? I have a picture if you can check it out. Love your site. Very educational.
Thank you! Is your mushroom called chicken of the woods?
This is a good read. Thanks for educating us on different types of mushrooms. There are a lot available with different characteristics. Mushrooms are indeed magical, it has endless capabilities. Keep posting!
Thank you!
I’d be more comfortable if you rephrased “The toxic varieties will turn blue when cut or bruised”, as Some toxic varieties… As there are toxic boletes which are not blue-staining, and this could make for a dangerous rule-of-thumb for the inexperienced.
Hello all,We live on the east coast in New Jersey and have several acres of woods. Can anyone tell us what species of edible mushrooms,if any grow or are native to our area? Many thanks to Colleen and all for their help.
Check out this youtube channel. It is great for finding NE USA mushrooms: Learn Your Land: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcbf8wnyVJl631LAmAbo7nw
When in doubt send me your morels, I will dispose of any deemed “dangerous” for you. This is a free service.
I live in the Ouachita mountains of Arkansas. We get 48″of rainfall a year and when mowing my yard I have seen several different limfs of mushrooms and am.always curious as how to know which ones I could possible grill with my steaks, include with my omelets and salads.
I was told an old saying…….if the underside of the hat has gills like a fish,these little morsels make a tasty dish.
Is that true?
No, this isn’t true, and in fact most of the highly poisonous mushrooms do have gills and grow on the ground (rather than on logs like oyster mushrooms do). Please consult a guidebook, and better yet an experienced mushroom hunter, before consuming any mushroom!
For me the easy way to tell false Morel mushroom is how the stem is attached true morel mushrooms have the stem attached to bottom of mushroom. false has a finger stem that only touches inside top.not the sides.if you grab a false Morel by the hat or top and pull it it will leave the finger sticking up usually. So if you don’t see stem attached to bottom don’t eat it
Is there a chemical kit to safely test these with so that you do not have to ingest them to find out definitively if they are poisonous? If so where may I buy it? how much? who makes it?
Thank you so much for sharing! And educating us on the different types of mushrooms that are available with different characteristics. Mushroom it is really magical, it has endless capabilities!
Hi! I found what looks like to my, a cluster of oyster mushrooms today on a fallen maple tree… Would you be able to help me identify them? I currently have them spore printing.. I can email you pictures.. thank you!
I just want to ask if some of you has heard this kind of shroom called Psilocybe Caerulipes also know as Blue-Foot? I was reading some articles about this kind shrooms before engaging my self for the first time. Like this one from:https://www.trufflemagic.com/blog/psilocybe-caerulipes/ .They say that it has a very potent effect on the brain and hallucination. Unlike other shrooms this one is less intense. In one article that I’ve read Psilocybe Caerulipes influences the prefontral cortex thats responsible for for differentiating thoughts, consequences of actions, and social control. Magic mushroom are use on reducing the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety. It can also help people to quit smoking and alcohol addiction. Some studies also suggest the property of magic shrooms/truffles can be useful for cancer patients. I would really want to hear other insights regarding this kind shroom and could possible be used as an alternative medicine Thanks
You might look into a film called “Fantastic Fungi” that explores this type of mushroom along with quite a few others. There’s a tremendous amount of info on mushrooms in this film.
Came upon your pin 5 Easy to identify edible mushrooms on Pinterest @ added it to my board WildFlora to eat or not to eat !? Pin name is Popeye I feel the urge to disconnect from the Matrix & would like to know as much about all aspects of “survival skills” I live in Sydney Australia ( not many wild wooded parts in the Metropolitan area )Recently got 2 books on Edible Wild Plants / Australian Fungi so any & all info you can direct my way would be greatly appreciated / & shared via Pinterest. Best Regards Owen.
I feel like the morel in your photo is not a morel but the toxic look a like.. please double check.
It is most certainly a morel :)
how about telling the rest of us how to tell the difference?
If you go up to the section on morels in the post I have links with photos that will explain and show the difference.
This is what some call a “Gray” morel.it is not tan/brown but rather almost white.sometimes yellowish in color with no trace of tan or brown.i have picked several that were white.these were mixed in the patch of grays.not sure if it’s TRUE,still studying it but everytime it is thunder storm with lightning in morel season next day or so the grays pop.may not be the cause but I think there is relation.dont know if it’s the light in middle of night or static electricity.
In our region, northern lower Michigan, the white morels come a little later in the spring season. Dark morels are the first to appear.
Morels dont have POISON look alikes, just ones that dont taste good. they might be able to make your stomach upset though.