Mushrooms grow on trees in appetizing colors and are very similar to familiar edible mushrooms. Read these tips before tasting a tree fungus. You can find out which mushrooms on the tree trunk are suitable for consumption here.
Are mushrooms on tree trunks edible?
There are onlya few edible tree mushrooms, such as oyster mushrooms, sulfur mushrooms, giant mushrooms, honey-yellow honey mushrooms and velvet-footed mushrooms. Most mushrooms on the tree trunk are inedible. All edible mushrooms arepoisonous raw and are only digestible after sufficient heating.
Can you eat any tree mushroom?
Of several thousand wood-dwelling mushroom species in Central Europe, onlyfew tree mushrooms are edibleThe vast majority of mushrooms on tree trunks areinedibleand sometimes evenpoisonous Fatally, an edible tree fungus becomes harmful to he alth if it thrives on yew or similarly poisonous trees.
Which tree mushrooms are edible?
Well-known edible tree mushrooms areOyster mushroom(Pleurotus ostreatus), sulfur mushroom (Laetiporus sulphureus), giant mushroom (Meripilus giganteus), honey yellow mushroom (Armillaria mellea) and velvet-footed mushroom (Flammulina velutipes). You can recognize the tree-dwelling edible mushrooms by these characteristics:
- Oyster mushroom: grey-brown, 5-15 cm wide hat, spicy scent.
- Sulfur Porling: yellow-orange hat up to 40 cm tall with a yellow edge, fruity smell.
- Giant Porling: yellow hat up to 40 cm wide, mushroomy smell.
- Honey yellow honey mushroom: honey yellow, 5-15 cm tall, smells soapy.
- Velvet-footed rutabaga: orange, 5 cm small hat, appetizing scent.
- Caution: raw and undercooked mushrooms are always poisonous.
What to do if tree fungi cannot be identified with certainty?
It is best to consult amushroom guide if a mushroom on a tree trunk cannot be clearly identified as edible. You can download detailed literature on mushroom identification as an e-book or PDF onto your cell phone. Access a standard work with detailed photos that you can compare on site with the tree fungus to be identified.
Any final doubts about the he althiness of tree mushrooms will be dispelled by a personal mushroom consultant. On the homepage of the German Society for Mycology e. V. you will find a search function by zip code that introduces you to certified mushroom experts.
Tip
Tree fungi are harmful to trees
If fungi grow on the tree trunk, the tree is already massively damaged. The fruiting bodies are merely the visible symptom of a disease that has often been raging inside the tree for years. White fungus species such as birch porling and edible mushrooms such as curly hen cause destructive brown rot in the affected tree. If tinder fungus grows on the bark, a tree is infected with irreversible white rot.
