Archive for Edible but untried

In search of Woorda

There is not a lot of information around on the fungi eaten by indigenous people in Australia before the arrival of Europeans. One of the few references on the topic is by James Drummond who arrived in the Swan River Colony in the year it was founded, 1829.

James Drummond with grandchild

He was a botanist and a keen observer and recorder of the local flora as well as the diet of the original inhabitants. The following is a snippet from a letter he wrote to the Perth Enquirer in May 1842.

I have often wondered if it might be possible to identify the blue staining bolete that he describes as Woorda. There are many blue staining boletes in Western Australia and I know of several that people have eaten but none of them fit the description he gives. I had long suspected that it might be a Gyroporus since members of that genus are eaten elsewhere on the globe and with one exception they appear to all be edible.

A paper published in 2019 gives us some some useful information about Gyroporus in Australia. It is titled “Three New Species of Gyroporus (Boletales, Basidiomycota) from Australia”. In it is a description of Gyroporus occidentalis with an explanation that it is the only rapidly blue staining member of the genus from WA.

I was fortunate enough to spot one of these on a friend’s property this year and it is shown in the following video and photographs. It is recorded as growing from sandy soil (well, that’s most of the coastal plain!) and it’s range includes Perth. I think that there is a some chance that this is Woorda but see below for further possibilities.

The rapid blueing reaction in real time
In situ view showing cap surface and pores
View showing stipe and pore surface

Some of the features of this mushroom match the description in the paper closely. The cap is described as “dry, floccose to matted woolly to heavily appressed tomentose, yellow-white to yellow buff to dirty yellow, cyanescent, with slightly extended margin”. This close-up of the cap surface seems to match that description. I couldn’s see that the cap margin was extended though.

Cap surface

The pores are yellow and cyanescent and approximately 0.3mm in diameter with a typically pentagonal outline.

Anther interesting aspect of this is the name Woorda. Of course transcriptions of language are subject to errors and interpretations and so forth but the records of Daisy Bates provide for some interesting reading. These are available in digital form here. The many words recorded as meaning mushroom are provided on the site as a map. shown below. It triggers the question of whether the diversity of names matches the diversity of species that were part of the diet.

Map of words for mushroom from digital Daisy Bates site

The term Woorda appears in a dictionary of Balardong Noongar language as meaning fungus. It is difficult to know if this is a generic word or refers to the specific fungus that Drummond mentions. He does seem to infer that it is specific. It is notable that, at the time he wrote to the Enquirer, he had been farming at Toodjay (Duidgee) which is in Balardong country. That would imply that the range of the fungus includes Balardong country. I am not sure if Gyroporus occidentalis extends out this far but it will be interesting to find out.

Noongar groups. Attribute John D. Croft, English Wikipedia

The situation is complicated by the fact that there are other, rather similar looking blue staining boletes within Balardong country. One of these is documented by Doug Sawkins in his excellent record of the fungi of Foxes Lair at Narrogin. His very large blue staining bolete is similar in some ways to Gyroporus occidentalis but it lacks the chambered stem and has red tones where it has been attacked but insects. It matches one of Daisy Bates’ records of Woorda meaning ‘large mushroom’.

It is interesting to note that there is another record of the consumption of blue-staining boletes, in this case from Gippsland in Victoria It was made by the Silesian naturalist Lothar Becker who visited Australia in two trips in the period 1849-1865. This record is reported in a paper by May and Darragh in Historical Records of Australian Science, 2019, 30, 130-137, titled “The significance of mycological contributions by Lother Becker”.. A snippet from this is reproduced below.

Once again there is no information to identify this mushroom and there are many boletes that share this blue-staining property. I am not sure if there are any species that are common to Gippsland and Western Australia. We can rule out Phlebopus from Drummond’s comments and in any case they don’t always display blue staining. From time to time people report eating blue-staining mushrooms from various locations in Australia but sadly there is scant information regarding the actual identity of them. In some cases they have been eaten by people of European origin who have perhaps mistaken them for species from their home region. In one case in Western Australia consumption is recorded in a YouTube video and it was on the basis that boletes are generally non-toxic. This assumption has some statistical support but it remains the case that one of the few cases of fatal mushroom poisoning in Australia was from consumption of a bolete.

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Macrolepiota clelandii – after some careful consideration

This is a common mushroom around the karri forest and other places during the early part of the rainy season.  It used to be listed as Macrolepiota konradii in guides until quite recently until Else Vellinga renamed the group in 2002.  Almost all sources list this as edible, except for Tony Young who says that this Australian species is of unknown toxicity.

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Macrolepiota clelandii

Its edibility seems to be  based on the fact that is was thought to be the same as the edible M. konradii from Europe.  It has also been mistakenly called Macrolepiota procera both here and in New Zealand where it also occurs.   In reality, Macrolepiota procera occurs in neither place. 

Here is a picture of the top surface.

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Macrolepiota clelandii top surface

The size of this mushroom varies a bit.  In the SW of WA it is a rather pretty and delicate mushroom that will sometimes spring up in the oddest places.   I had one come up once half way down a post hole that I had left open. The specimen pictured is about 150mm high with a cap 100mm across.  That is a typical size for around my area.  Further north I have seen pictures of larger specimens.  They don’t occur as a small mushroom.  In fact, there are some small Lepiootas that look rather similar and some Lepiotas are deadly.

Update: August 2016

My fellow blogger Jsun and I picked some of these during July and he was able to confirm that they were the same as those he had eaten in the east.  I watched him cook and eat some and being thus encouraged I had a small portion myself.  I am now much more confident about these.   One thing he pointed out to me was the ‘snakeskin’ pattern on the stem which also flares out at the base.

 

snakeskin

Snakeskin pattern on stem

The ring or annulus is quite distinctive also,  breaking up in radial splits and being attached at first, but moveable with some encouragement.

macrolepiota ring

Detail of ring

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Clitocybe (Lepista) nuda – The Wood Blewit – a surprise

Someone who is enthusiastic about mushrooms like I am will let their friends know about it and when they spot something that you might be interested in, they will tell you about it.  So it was the other day when we were looking at a house for sale in Bridgetown.  My friends were in a small section of yard where someone had dumped some grass clippings.  Spotting some mushrooms, they called me over.   To my amazement, there was a cluster of Clitocybe nuda, perhaps more widely known as Lepista nuda, or the Wood Blewit.  This is a very cosmopolitan and widely eaten mushroom, that requires cooking before consumption.

This mushroom is an introduction to Australia and is quite common on the east coast where I frequently see pictures of specimens that others have found, but having never seen it in Western Australia, I assumed that it did not occur here, like several other species more common in the east. Edit: I have subsequently found that there is a single record from the Perth region from 1981, but I cannot access the record for some reason. Too old perhaps.

The particular specimens that were growing from the grass clippings were rather aged, though there were some new buttons starting up.   In the image below you can see both.

Clitocybe nuda in grass clippings.

Clitocybe nuda in grass clippings.

I have overturned the mature specimens to show the purple colour of the gills.   You can just see a purple button emerging at about 5:30. (sort of, sorry about the image quality, I had to use my phone). Here is a close-up of one of the buttons in the pile.

Button of Clitocybe nuda

Because these specimens were too old, it was not possible to consider eating them.   I am currently in the process if trying to get a clone going from one of those little buttons though.

Edit.  I visited the site about a week later and the little button had grown into a small but fully formed mushroom.   I think that these are some of the prettiest mushrooms around.  When cut, the stem showed a purple colour similar to the gills.

image

There are some other purple mushrooms around that one might easily mistake for this one.   These belong to the genus Cortinarius and it would be most unwise to eat any of them.   The one the springs immediately to mind is Cortinarius archeri. There are two main differences between Cortinarius and this mushroom.  The first is that Cortinarius always grows in association with a tree.  It is mycorrhizal.  These specimens are quite clearly growing from the grass clippings where the mycelium could be seen reaching down into the pile, however.  The second is that Cortinarius has a rusty orange spore print (see below).  These had a rather pale spore print (it was a very faint print because of the age) but is was clearly not rusty orange.  The orange colour of Cortinarius can also be seen in the gills as they mature and as a deposit on the stem, where the remains of a membrane is evident.  Prue also talks about this type of confusion on her blog. She is possibly referring to Cortinarius austroviolaceus which is the Australian version of C. violaceus.

archerii

Cortinarius archeri

Another couple of purple capped mushrooms are Leucopaxillus lilacinus and Russula clelandii.

Though I haven’t eaten this one, my friend Fiona  over at WhereFishSing has reported her experience with it, which anyone interested might like to read.

Now that I know that these are around, I am hoping to find more of them.  And if anyone comes across some little purple button mushrooms growing in their compost or grass clippings, keep and eye on them and please let me know about it.

If I manage to get this into culture, I will post some further images.

As a footnote, there are several other species related to this one growing on the east coast though they are smaller.

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Xerula australis – edible and medicinal

Xerula australis has synonyms Xerula radicata var. australis and Oudemansiella radicata var. australis.  (ref: Bougher and Syme)  There are several closely related species that are difficult to distinguish even with a microscope.

While this species is reported to be edible, it does not find too many rave reviews, although one variety of Xerula radicata is being sold in kit form in China and they describe it as delicious (I suppose they would!).

It has been suggested that they might make a colourful addition to a stir fry.  You would need to find a few of them though, as they are only a small mushroom with a cap 20-40 mm across and a tough inedible stem.  They have quite a distinctive appearance as shown in this image kindly provided by sunphlo.

Xerula australis

An interesting feature of Xerula radicata and most probably this variety is that it contains an anti-hypertensive agent known as  oudenone.  (who’d have known?)  The cultivation of  the fungus in liquid medium and extraction of the active ingredient is the subject of US patent 3835170.  The information in that patent suggests that the active ingredient is reasonably heat stable and should survive a mild cooking process at least.  Whether this is a good thing or not might depend on the individual.

I have set up a new category for fungi that I have not had any personal experience with, or reports of, other than that they are mentioned in the literature as being edible.   If anyone has experience with eating these, I would like hear about it.

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Laetiporus sulphureus – an exciting prospect

In other parts of the world Laetiporus sulphureus is known as chicken of the woods and is  considered a good edible mushroom. I had not heard of any occurence in Australia, but Ray Palmer of north Queensland has reported it growing on Eucalyptus near his home.  You can see Ray’s pictures on his Flickr site, here.

I would emphasise that I have not eaten this mushroom, and I am not aware that Ray or anyone else has either. So it is in the ‘potential’ category for the moment. But an exciting prospect!

Note 26/2/2013.  Since it is reported as edible in the comments below, I have upgraded this to the ‘edible but untried’ category.

If should be noted that the edibility of L. sulphureus depends on the substrate.   On this page, they recommend that you don’t eat it if it is growing on Eucalyptus.

If anyone has any further information on this, I would be most interested to hear about it.

Footnote:

As noted in the comments below, Forthferalz has drawn my attention to some other references to this fungus in Australia.  This picture is provided by blueswami.

I am not sure what angle this was taken at, but in comparison with other pictures, it seems to be upside down.  I think it looks more realistic like this:

There appears to be quite a wide variety of morphologies and colours for this genus.  Even in North America, where it is widely consumed, there appears to be differences between the east and west coast experiences, as well as some confusion about which species is being consumed.

Update  16/04/2016

I have recently had the chance to observe this mushroom first hand in the Dorrigo/Bellingen area of NSW.   It was growing on fallen logs and on the base of a living tree which was also host to Omphalotus nidiformis.  These observations were made in March of a dryish year and I was able to see examples of it over a range of forests.  Here is a picture of one on an exposed lateral root of a rainforest tree along with Omphalotus.

Laetiporus and omphalotus

Laetiporus sp. together with Omphalotus nidiformis

I haven’t shown a picture of the pores, but they were white .  This isn’t the right colour for Laetiporus sulphureus.  It is interesting also that this species appears to be restricted to the warmer regions of the country, while L. sulphureus grows in places like England.

Some light is thrown on this subject by Michael Kuo, the Mushroom Expert.  His comments can be found at this link.

It seems that there are numerous closely related species of Laetiporus in the US.  It is entirely possible that the species here in Australia is yet another one.  The fact that the ones I have observed grow at ground level indicates that they are not L. sulphureus.  To my knowledge it has not been formally named yet. Neither has it’s edibility been established.  Given that there have been numerous cases of people experiencing gastro-intestinal distress from eating various forms of this mushroom in America, it is entirely possible that our local species will cause the same problems.   So there it stands.  At first exciting, but in the end an enigma.

 

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