6 Characteristics to Avoid Poisonous Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest
- AllyZilla
- Feb 23
- 2 min read
Getting started with mushroom foraging can be intimidating because there are mushrooms that grow in our area that are poisonous, some even deadly.
There is no simple rule that will always differentiate poisonous from edible mushrooms, but there is a short list of characteristics that will steer you away from mistake-prone edibles and their poisonous look-alikes.
I'm on a mission to make mushroom foraging in the Pacific Northwest approachable for beginners by creating free educational modules that are bite-sized, photo-forward, and in language anyone can understand.
My latest module groups our local poisonous mushrooms by six easy-to-remember characteristics that I recommend beginners avoid while they are learning to accurately identify mushrooms.
Growing on the ground with whitish, blade-like gills
This group contains the most poisonous mushrooms, and they are the cause of the most common mushroom poisonings (and deaths from poisoning) in our area.
Gills appear underneath the cap of most mushrooms and are the fertile surface that releases spores, the microscopic bits that help mushrooms spread (like seeds).
True gills look like hundreds of tiny knife blades hanging blade down, positioned around the stem of the mushroom like the spokes on a wheel.
Yellowish/orangish mushrooms with blade-like gills
Western Jack-O-Lantern by Ron Pastorino (Ronpast) at Mushroom Observer
Little brown capped mushrooms
Deadly Galerina by Alan Rockefeller
Mushrooms with lobbed or brain-like caps
False Morel
Mushrooms with pores that are or stain red when bruised
Black center
Check out the Poisonous Mushrooms module to see photos of each poisonous mushroom that highlight these characteristics: https://www.pnwfungiforager.com/poisonousmushrooms
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