Common Edible Mushrooms

MORELS AND SADDLE FUNGI
These fungi are especially recommended for eating because
no one who has seen even a picture of a morel could confuse the
plants with any poisonous kinds. They are absolutely safe for
any amateur to collect and eat and, moreover, are exceedingly delicious.
When one finds a spot where morels grow thickly it is
well to keep it a secret, since one's friends will have no compunction
about arriving first at the harvest.
Edible: HELVELLA CRISPA
GENUS Helvella
Species of Helvella are known as the saddle fungi because of
the marked resemblance of the caps to the shape of a saddle.
Several kinds are found; the most common is Helvella ens-pa
(Figure 55), the species name meaning wavy and referring to the
margin of the cap. They grow singly or in groups of two, three,
or four in wooded regions and swamps and can be found rather
readily because of their pure white color. The cap is more or
less irregularly saddle-shaped and varies in width up to 2 inches;
the stem is most marvelously fluted and twisted.
No other species resembles this one closely enough to be mistaken
for it.
GENUS Gyromitra
Edibility doubtful: GYROMITRA ESCULENTA
This mushroom is closely related to the saddle fungi and
therefore may be considered in the same group. Gyromitra means
gyrose or convoluted and refers to the characteristic shape of the
cap, which is made up of rounded folds (Figure 56). This is one
of the more common spring mushrooms in wooded areas; it often
grows in low places and swamps but is by no means restricted to
sites of that kind. The cap is chocolate brown, up to 4 or 5 inches
in diameter, much ridged and convoluted, brittle, and hollow. The
stem is short, thick, white, and sometimes branched at the top.
9'