Tips for Identifying and Photographing Mushrooms

During my annual autumn Arctic Adventure Photography workshop we brought along a mushroom expert & artist (Diane Boudreau) in green pullover to show us which species are edible. The trail to Cameron falls cuts through moist areas with numerous mushrooms.

Mushrooms can be as beautiful as birds, flowers, butterflies and sea shells to photograph. Mushrooms come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. You can find them almost anywhere though they only appear for a short time and are usually common in spring and autumn. Unlike birds and other animals, mushrooms will hold still for you while you take their picture. A few species are luminescent and will even glow in the dark ( e.g. jack-o-lantern mushrooms, Omphalotus olvascens) . No one knows for sure how many species of mushroom there are in North America so its possible you could even discover new ones. Some wild mushroom species are edible and are they are free to pick.

Omphalotus olearius, commonly known as the jack-o'-lantern mushroom, is a poisonous orange gilled mushroom that glows in the dark. by Noah Siegel, August 2007, Randolph Co. West Virginia - from Wikipedia. View a picture of the mushroom in daylight here: http://americanmushrooms.com/taxa/Omphalotus_olearius_00.htm. This bioluminescence only occurs on the gills and is due to an enzyme called luciferase, acting upon a compound called luciferin leading to the emission of light in the same manner as firefilies. How cool is this?

I picked my first mushrooms in Toronto when I was 11 and sold them - my first business. My neighbour, David Mott, showed me what a morel looked like and told me if I brought him some he would pay me a quarter each. Luckily I found some morels growing along a fence in a nearby grave yard, however I have yet to taste cooked morels.

My interest in mushrooms has been rekindled after seeing Taylor Lockwood's beautiful book "Treasures from the Kingdom of Fungi". I realize now that I have been missing good opportunities to take more artistic pictures of mushrooms. In this article most of my pictures are documentary in nature and I plan to take more artistic photos in the future. In the meantime while the snow flies outside my door I will learn as much as I can before the next mushroom season begins. If you are interested in learning more about mushrooms see some of the links, books and resources I have included below.

Photo of morels, Morchella angusticeps from Wikipedia commons, by Johannes Harnisch, Peace River Area, British Columbia. Black morels can cause an upset stomach if eaten with alcohol and should always be cooked. They are one of the easiest species to identify and are sought after. They usually appear in spring, late April through to early June in North America.

If you plan to collect and eat wild mushrooms you need to realize that some of the toxins in mushrooms are deadly and you can die and even if you do survive you may need an organ transplant. There are also many look-a like mushrooms not to mention numerous species that have yet to be tested. One of the most poisonous mushrooms belongs to the Amanitaceae family (see pictures of mushrooms below). Some of the mushrooms in this family produce alpha-Amanitin, a cyclic peptide of eight amino acids that inhibits RNA polymerase II . RNA polymerase is an enzyme that your cells require to produce proteins. Once this toxin is ingested its effects start to become noticeable between 10-24 hours after eating after which time it's useless to have your stomach pumped. The toxin begins to attack the liver and causes the cells to lyse and then it attacks the kidneys. If you want to know more about this toxin - read this article on Wikipedia.

My intention is not to incite fear about mushrooms, but rather curiosity and respect. If you take the time to learn which species are edible you can enjoy your hunt and bring something back for the table. There are no dangers to photographing mushrooms unless you do it on private property or get bitten by ticks and mosquitoes. Learning which species are poisonous is a good place to start before you consider collecting mushrooms to eat. To eat or take pictures of mushrooms the first thing to do is to learn a bit about fungi, where you can find them and when and where they might appear. The more you know, the more likely you will encounter them in fields and woods.

A mushroom field guide with colour pictures is a good place to start learning how to identify different species, but understand that pictures alone are often not enough to identify a species for certain. Common names are not reliable, try to learn the scientific names if possible. The mushroom shown above is Sarcodon imbricatum also called Shingled hedgehog, scaly hedgehog, scaly tooth or hawk wing. It is found in coniferous forests, deciduous and mixed forests growing on the ground. It is edible according to some of my books and in other books it is not - go figure. According to Diane Boudrea this mushroom is edible, but very bitter tasting. This mushroom belongs to the group of Spine or Tooth Fungi (Hydnaceae) . To correctly identify different mushrooms often you have to photograph them from several angles and view the reproductive structures under the cap. Better field guides also include keys to help you narrow down and identify the mushroom. Some guides also use spore color as an important identification characteristic. However, when it comes to eating wild mushrooms if you have any doubt about their identity - DON'T EAT THEM!

If you do decide to eat wild mushrooms below are some recommendations you should follow:

1. Only eat a small amount of the mushrooms you collect the first time

2. Always keep at least one mushroom that can be used for identification in the event you do get sick

3. Always clean and cook the mushrooms, some species (e.g. morels) may be toxic if not cooked

4. If you are eating wild mushrooms one person in your group should refrain from eating them

5. Untried mushrooms should never be consumed with alcohol, some species inhibit the breakdown of alcohol in the liver

6. If you eat hallucinogenic mushrooms you may want to read this article first - Wikipedia

7. Go with an experienced mushroom hunter, or join a mycology club and learn as much as you can first (I would let the     experienced mushroom hunter eat some first and wait 24 hours before you try them), not everyone who collects     mushrooms is an expert.

If you do become ill after eating a mushroom go to the hospital emergency room and bring a specimen of the mushroom with you so they can contact an expert and have them identify the species. Some mushrooms deemed edible may still cause illness in folks that are allergic to them. Also don't assume just because a group of mushrooms is found growing together or next to each other that they are all the same species. If in doubt - throw them out.

Amanita muscaria (Fly agaric) is a highly poisonous mushroom that can have a red or yellow cap, The cap often has white warts on the surface and there maybe a veil and enlarged volva at the base of the stalk. It is called a fly agaric because some folks would put pieces of the mushroom in a small bowl of milk in order to entice and kill flies. In Siberia some people would drink a tea made from this mushroom for its hallucinogenic effects, others would drink the urine from those that ingested this mushroom to avoid some of the unpleasant side effects. The ferociousness of Viking Berserkers has also been attributed to eating this mushroom before battle Davis et. al. 2012 Field Guide to Mushrooms of Western North America , page 36).

After you photograph a mushroom, pull one out and turn it over so you can view the underside and stipe (stalk) as shown above. If possible note the spore color which is done by taking the mushroom cap home, placing it on a piece of white\black paper, covering the cap with a jar or glass to reduce air flow and then examining the spore print and color the next day. Mycologists sometimes put the spores onto a microscope slide to examine them under high magnification.

Above photo shows the bottom of a mushroom belonging to the group Boletus or pored fungi - being held by Diane Boudreau of Yellowknife. Suillus tomentosus also called, Blue-staining Slippery Jack, Poor Man's Slippery Jack and Woolly capped Suillus. (Edible but not tasty). The pores stain blue when bruised, it also has fibrillose scales on the cap. We found specimens in September on a hike to Cameron falls about 40 km outside of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Above photo above shows a mushroom belonging to the group of gilled mushrooms (Agarics).

Calvatia gigantea, or giant puffball growing under a maple tree near Midland, Ontario in 1980. The inset is a picture of me holding the puffball which is about the size of my head. Photograph taken with an Olympus OM-1 camera, 50 mm lens using Kodachrome ISO 64 slide film - the good old days of film!

Photography Equipment to Photograph Mushrooms

The photographic equipment required to photograph mushrooms is not different than that used to photograph wildflowers, lichens and other small objects. Basically you need a tripod, cable release, a macro lens, a flash and maybe some white card reflectors. To soften the light from the flash you can attach a soft box, or tape Kleenex in front of the flash light source. Of course you have to be willing to get down low onto the ground so a blanket, knee pads or cushion can come in handy. Digital cameras with flexible LCD monitors that can turn and swivel are ideal for photographing from ground level. Of course you can also use smaller compact camera, but photographers serious about control and getting quality pictures generally prefer a single lens reflex camera with a macro lens.

Many of the new DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras offer flexible rotating LCD (liquid crystal display) screens which are great for taking video and shooting with the camera on the ground so you don't have to try and get your eye to the viewfinder. The camera above is a Nikon 5100, but Canon also makes several models with a rotating LCD screen.

A tripod, bean bag or other support that can get you down low will often be required. Even when using a tripod I find that an electronic cable release or using the self timer is required to minimize camera shake from the mirror bounce especially at shutter speeds between 1\2  to 1\8 of a second. Some photographers like to lock the mirror up as well during the exposure, though I don't find this necessary - though I do with astrophotography. The ideal macro lens, in my opinion has a 50-60 mm focal length. It can be used on either a full frame or crop digital camera and you will usually want to use an f-stop of 11-22 to get a maximum depth of field in your pictures. A 100 mm macro lens will also work fine, if you can't afford a macro lens consider using close-up filters or extension tubes - for more techniques on how to take close-up photos see my e-book on macrophotography techniques.

• DSLR camera with a macro lens
• Tripod or ground support
• Cable release or use the self timer
• Electronic flash
• White cards or other suitable reflectors

Macro lenses with the focal length of 50-60 or 90-110 mm are popular and make excellent lenses for photographing mushrooms. The shorter focal length has a smaller working distance allowing you to get in very close. The 90 mm macro lens allows you to photograph and achieve the same magnification but at a greater distance from the mushroom. For butterflies and insects the 90 mm is often better since you can be further away from the specimen.

Perhaps the most important aspect of taking good mushroom photographs is the lighting. Usually soft overcast light is best, but in dark conditions found on the forest floor artificial light can be very helpful. Small white cards can be used to reflect light under the mushroom, sometimes putting a flash light behind the mushroom can create a rim light effect. Taylor Lockwood sometimes puts a hole in the back of the mushroom cap and puts a small flash light inside - I will have to give this trick a try. The nice thing with digital cameras is that you can see the results instantly and make adjustments in the field to the exposure, composition and depth of field if you need to. To learn more about macrophotography techniques you can purchase and download my Macrophotography e-book for only $9.95 and also look at some of my articles on wild-flower photography.

One of the things Taylor Lockwood does before photographing some mushrooms is he will clean up the cap and remove any debris on the specimen. He might use a pine needle, leaf or branch to do this. A small paint brush or lens brush would also work well. Alternatively you can clean dirt from the picture afterwards using Adobe Photoshop, but it's always better to do it in the field for the best results. Otherwise take your time when photographing mushrooms, vary your angle and try to capture different points of view.

If you want to identify the mushroom afterwards in your photos be sure to get a photo of the underside of the cap, sometimes it also helps to dig one out and look for features such as the volva found around the base of some poisonous mushrooms. It's OK to pick the mushroom and bring it back for identification just try to minimize destruction of the substrate. Also you may need to collect several specimens at various stages of their development. To bring the mushrooms back its best to place them in small paper bags or wrapped in wax paper. Keep notes on where you found them and other relevant information such as what types of trees are growing nearby.

Some additional Mushroom Photography Tips

Tyr using a wide angle lens and include as much of the envioronment in the background. Alternatively include some people, or a hand or finger to give a sense of scale. Some photographers will include a pencil, coin, pocket knife, finger or ruler to provide information about the size of the mushroom. Also you don't always have to fill the frame with the mushroom, leave some space to feature what it is growing on.

Mushroom top view - very difficult to identify mushrooms if you only take a top view photograph. (60 mm macro lens)

Three quarter view showing the gills underneath and the cap - this image provides important clues that can help identify

the mushroom. The stalk has attached gills and the mushroom is white with a smooth cap that is flat.

In some photos I try to get very low to the ground to show the mushroom from the perspective of a mouse. In the photo above I removed some of the leaves around the bottom of the stipe to show the mycelium extending into the soil. The mushroom was found in a deciduous forest in northern Ontario in October. The cap was smooth, dry and cream coloured. The underside has gills attached to the stalk at an angle. The gills are decurrent (run from the cap down the stem), with a grayish-brown cap. I believe this is a Clitocype species (Club foot?). This mushroom also looks very similar to Rusula fragrantissima in pictures from this web site http://www.mushroomfarm.com/mushroom-species/russula/russula-fragrantissima.html

Biology of Mushrooms

In all aspects of nature, the more you know about your subject the more likely you are able to find them. To learn more about mushrooms I list several field guides below that you can purchase or get from your local library. You may consider taking a course at a local college or at the minimum watch the YouTube video mushroom identification for beginners - see link below. First try to learn the major groups of mushrooms and appreciate that not even experts can identify every mushroom they encounter.

To identify mushrooms keep a few notes about where you find them and some of their characteristics

1. Size of the mushroom, cap diameter, stalk height

2. Shape of the fruiting body

3. Nature of the spore-bearing surface (composed of gills, pores, teeth)

4. Color of the spores - note the spore color under the mushroom - if not make a spore print
5. Spacing and arrangement of the gills and pores

6. Are the gills attached to the stalk or not, if they are how they are attached - see diagram below

7. Texture of the cap & stalk - is it slimy, powdery, waxy

8. Are there distinctive markings or ornamentation on the mushroom e.g. warts, scales, veil remanants, skirt present

9. Does the cap or stalk change color when cut or exude drops of liquid - you can cut the mushroom with a pocket knife

10. Does the specimen have a distinctive odour (some folks taste the mushrooms and spit them out)

11. Take a picture of the mushroom and include a top view, side view and bottom of the cap

12. Note what kinds of trees surround the mushroom, coniferous, deciduous and identify the trees if possible

If you want to bring the mushroom home for closer study you should put it in a paper bag that breathes. You can purchase wax paper bags and other mushroom hunting accessories from various web sites (e.g. http://www.mushroomfarm.com/mushroom-hunting/hunting-accessories/). Putting the mushrooms in plastic bags will accelerate their deterioration due to moisture building up in the bag. Some mushroom pickers collect mushrooms in open baskets.

Basket of Boletus edulis, edible mushrooms, photo by George Chernilevsky, from Wikipedia Commons.

If you own a microscope like I do, you can view spores and their color, shape and size.

Photomicrograph of Coprinellus sp spores (inkcap mushroom). Mushroom spores are important in identifying some fungi down to the level of individual species, however most photographers do not own a microscope. This photo is borrowed from Wikipedia. I µm is equal to 1\1000 of a millimeter. The spores above are about 5 microns in length - a little bit larger than some bacteria. To identify the spores see book by D. Largent et al (1977) How to Identify Mushrooms to Genus III: Microscopic Features which can be purchased from madriverpress_books.com.

Spore Prints

Above photo shows a brown spore print on white and blue paper.

To view how some artists are using spore prints as art visit this blog: Resurrection fern.

To make a spore print you place the cap of the mushroom with gills or pores down onto a piece of white, black or coloured paper. Cover the cap with a glass, some folks add a drop of water to the top of the cap and let sit overnight. Remove the glass and cap and note the pattern and colour of the spores. The spore colour is useful in identifying what group the mushroom belongs to. I plan to cover making spore prinst in more detail in the future with examples. You can copy the illustration above to your computer and print it out on your laser printer for use in making spore prints - courtesy of Wikipedia.

Other factors to look at when trying to identify mushrooms is the shape of the cap and how gills are attached to the cap, some of the descriptive terms are shown below.

Mushroom cap shapes

Gill attachment to the stalks

Common mushroom Groups

The Fungi (Eumycota) are divided into 2 major groups, Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes based on whether their spores are produced on basidia (club shaped structures) or in sac like structures. The majority of mushrooms belong to the first group, whereas the Ascomycetes include the morels, False morels, Cup fungi, Lobster mushroom, Bird nest fungi and Fairy Fans.

Basidiomycetes (Club fungi):

1) Agaricaceae or Agarics, these are gilled mushrooms - e.g. table or button mushrooms e.g. Portobello

2) Boletaceae or Boletes - mushrooms that have pores below the cap instead of gills

3) Cantharellaceae or Chanterelles - funnel shaped , gills run from the cap down the stem (decurrent)

4) Clavariaceae or Coral and Club Fungi - fruting body resembles coral some have single clubs

4) Hydnaceae or Teeth Fungi - fruiting body bears spores on downward-pointing spines "small teeth or iceicles"

5) Polyporaceae or Polypores and Bracket Fungi - shelf-like or bracket-like cap usually growing on wood

6) Tremellales or Jelly Fungi - gelatinous fruiting body usually found on wood

7) Lycoperdales or Puffballs and Earthstars - fruiting body round or pear shaped, outer skin may split into starlike rays

8) Nidulariales or Bird's nest fungi - tiny fungi on soil, wood, dung shaped like a birds nest

9) Phallales or Stinkhorns - fruiting body emerging from an "egg" whose skin forms a volva (sac) , phallus shaped

10) Stereaceae - Crust & Parchment Fungi - usually grow on wood and forms crusts or parchments, resemble lichens

11) Podacales or Gastroid Fungi - presence of cap, stalk and spore mass of plates, rudimentary gills, deformed agarics

Ascomycetes (Sac fungi)

1) Pezizales or Morels, Elfin Saddles and Cup Fungi - fruiting body disc-shapped, cup-shaped, vase-like, brain-like, pitted

2) Helotiales or Earth Tongues - fruiting body usually erect, simple, unbranched club-like

3) Tuberales or Truffles - fruting body usually underground, round, oval or knobby, interior hollow

The list above does not include all the the fungi groups just the main ones - see the book Mushrooms Demystified by David Aurora for a complete list or visit the mushroomexpert.com for a more in depth description of mushroom taxonomy.

In addition to field guies and web sites, you can always carry out a search on Google for images of mushrooms and compare them with the species you think you have identified.

What I am finding out is that mushroom identification is not easy, I can usuallynarrow down a specimen to the family, but getting to genus and species is challenging. In the future I plan to examine the spores and carry out other identification tests on specimens in the field or that I bring home. Some books provide keys to help you eliminate and selectively narrow down the identity of the mushroom, the problem with keys is that some of the questions require that you have the mushroom in front of you. How do you know whether or not a mushroom bruises, changes color or exudes fluid if you only have a photograph to look at?

Top Left: Amanda Peterson holds a coral fungus belonging to the Clavariaceae family which includes 7 genera and 120 species. Collectively known as coral fungi. The mushroom above appears to belong to the Ramaria genus. On the right, Diane Boudreau, an avid mushroom collector, is holding Suillus tomentosus (Blue-Staining Slippery Jack) mushroom showing the bottom of the cap and its pores making this a Boletes mushroom.

Gem-studded Puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum) also called devil's snuff box. These were photographed along a Bragg Creek trail in Alberta in August. They are edible when young. It is probably the most common puffball in North America. Photo below shows mature puffballs in Autumn. Puffballs include the genera Calvatia, Calbovista and Lycoperdon.

Gem-studded puffball in fall, Northwest Territories. Spores are expelled from the top.

Remenant of a rounded Earth star (Geastrum saccatum) photographed under conifer trees (Jack pine) on sandy soil, Prelude Territorial park near Yellowknife, NT. They are not edible and most often found on the ground or in leaf litter. They are essentially modified puffballs in which the thick outer skin splits into starlike rays which unfold and often recurve, exposing the spore case to the elements.

Polypore Fungi

Polypore fungi include bracket fungi that grow on trees and are common in deciduous forests. Some species live off live trees others grow on old logs and snags. They can become quite large in size and I have encountered some that are a few feet wide.

Turkey tail polypore (Trametes versicolor) grows on dead logs in deciduous forests, this one was photographed near Midland, Ontari . Not edible. According to the American Cancer Society: "Available scientific evidence does not support claims that this raw mushroom is an effective anti-cancer agent in humans though there are several YouTube videos suggesting otherwise. According to Wikpedia there is some scientific evidence that substances derived from parts of this mushroom may be useful against cancer, but further research in necessary.

Turkey tail polypore with green algae growing on the surface. The fungus was growing on a large maple tree, near Midland, Ontario.

Laetiporus sulphureus, a.k.a. Chicken of the woods or sulphur shelf. This genus consists of large, fleshy, shelf-like fungi. Typically they grow on dead trees, occasionally on living trees. Widely distributed and common. Supposedly edible when cooked.

Chicken of the woods

Chicken of the woods

Chicken of the woods - (Laetiporus sulphureus) overlapping clusters of fleshy, smooth orange-yellow caps found on stumps, trunks and logs of deciduous and coniferous trees, living trees and roots. Also called "Sulfur Shelf." Edible. This one was growing on a living tree.

Polypores or bracket fungi are one of the most important fungi to break down wood. They often gain access to living trees through wounds in the bark as this one has done on a birch tree. Many polypores are difficult to identify down to species.

Poisonous Amanita Mushrooms

Above and below, Amanita muscaria, also called Fly agaric, This mushroom is often solitary or found in small groups, The cap can be blood red to yellow in colour with distinctive white warts. The cap can be convex to flat and up to 16 inches across .The stalk often has ring (annulus) and the stem is enlarged at the bottom forming bulb called a volva. This species is both poisonous and hallucinogenic.

Surface scales or warts are remnants of the veil. The veil may be absent on some specimens.

Early stages of Amanita muscaria.

Large Amanita specimen I found near Bragg Creek in August. This large specimen was almost a foot tall and about
9 inches in diameter.

If you are photographing mushrooms for identification purposes, try to include different stages of the mushroom, often their will be younger mushrooms in the same area. Also show the underside so it is possible to view whether the mushroom has spines, gills or pores and how the gills are attached to the stipe. If possible note the colour of the spores on the ground around the mushroom, alternatively bring a sample of the mushroom cap home to create a spore print.

Other Mushrooms

These mushrooms were photographed in a coniferous forest near Bragg Creek, AB , but because I did not view or photograph the underside, I can't be sure of its identity- don't make the same mistake by not photographing the underside. My best guess for its identity is: Pluteus cervinus, or Deer Mushroom