1- Hi, it's Doug!
2Have you ever found a mushroom growing in the wild?
3Well, this guy in the country of Zambia found what might be one of the biggest mushrooms in the world.
4And best of all, it's one that's not poisonous.
5He could eat it.
6Someone named Isaiah has a question about mushrooms.
7Let's give him a call now.
8- Hi, Doug.
9- Hey, Isaiah.
10- I have a question for you.
11How do you know if a mushroom is poisonous or not?
12- Ooo, that is a great question.
13Mushrooms aren't just something you can find at the grocery store.
14They grow in the wild too.
15And if you pay attention to the world around you, sometimes you can find some really interesting ones.
16Like one time, I remember walking out into the yard behind my house.
17I was going to mow the grass like I did every week
18when suddenly, I noticed something that looked just like this.
19It was one of the weirdest mushrooms I've ever seen.
20You can see, it's not a single mushroom at all.
21It's an entire ring of mushrooms. There were dozens of them.
22This ring of mushrooms had popped up overnight in my back yard.
23It was so interesting that I couldn't bring myself to mow it down.
24I let the grass stay long that week.
25I learned it's what's called a fairy ring.
26In ancient times, some people believed that this ring of mushrooms marked the spot where a fairy had been dancing in the night.
27Today, scientists have a different reason for thinking why they grow like this.
28We know it has to do with a circle-shaped pattern of the part of these mushrooms growing under the ground.
29But I love that we still call them fairy rings.
30Or here's another one of my favorites.
31I remember in about fifth grade, I was walking along the edge of a field behind my school
32when I saw what looked like this weird deflated soccer ball sitting there in the grass.
33When I went to kick it, it gave off like a cloud of smoke.
34Or so I thought.
35I found out later that this deflated soccer ball thing was actually a type of mushroom called a puffball.
36And by the way, that cloud of smoke was actually millions of microscopic particles called spores.
37They're the seeds of the mushrooms.
38By kicking a puffball, you're actually helping it to spread its seeds into the wind.
39Fairy rings and puffballs are just two fun examples of interesting mushrooms you can find growing in the wild.
40But are these mushrooms you could eat?
41You might've heard that certain wild mushrooms are poisonous, even deadly.
42Is it true?
43And if it is, is there any way you can tell?
44What do you think?
45Before I say anything more, now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
46Okay, you ready?
47Well, I wish I could tell you there was an easy way to tell whether a mushroom is poisonous or not.
48Like, if only the poisonous mushrooms were always a certain color.
49Or if they always had a certain shape or something.
50Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that at all.
51In fact, one of the deadliest mushrooms in North America looks like this.
52By comparison, here's the kind of mushroom that we put on pizza.
53You can hardly tell these apart.
54The mushroom on the left is called a Destroying Angel.
55A single bite of Destroying Angel is enough to kill a human being.
56But now check this out.
57Here's a mushroom that looks really weird.
58You might think, oh, this one's gotta be poisonous.
59But guess what, this one is called a Morel.
60And not only is it not poisonous,
61lots of people consider it to be one of the best tasting mushrooms in the world.
62One pound of these mushrooms sells for as much as $40 or $50.
63But even Morel mushrooms aren't always easy to tell from poisonous ones.
64You see this one here?
65It looks like a Morel, but it's not quite the same.
66It's what's called a False Morel or a brain mushroom.
67And it will make you really sick if you eat one.
68So how can anyone ever tell a poisonous mushroom from the kinds of mushrooms that we can eat?
69The answer: you have to become a mushroom expert.
70Mushroom experts are people who get really good at identifying mushrooms,
71knowing what each of the different kinds of mushrooms look like.
72They learn that each kind of mushroom has its own special traits,
73which can help tell it apart from other mushrooms.
74For example, there are a few mushrooms that actually turn blue when you cut them.
75Isn't that weird?
76Some of these are poisonous and will make you sick.
77Others are safe to eat.
78So knowing if it turns blue isn't enough.
79But using this trait helps a mushroom expert narrow down the list of possible kinds of mushrooms it might be.
80Or here's another amazing trait.
81There are some mushrooms that actually glow in the dark.
82Here in North America where I live,
83one of the more common ones is this, called the Jack O'Lantern.
84Jack O'Lantern mushrooms are poisonous,
85so the fact that it glows in the dark can help a mushroom expert know what it is.
86Or check out this kind of mushroom.
87It's called Chicken of the Woods.
88These are always bright yellow-orange and they grow in this unusual clump of one on top of another.
89Chicken of the Woods is a good example of a wild mushroom that's not poisonous.
90And it doesn't have any poisonous lookalikes.
91But some people do get sick if they eat it raw,
92so mushroom collectors always cook it really well before eating.
93As for that funny sounding name,
94that's because they say once you do cook it, it tastes like chicken.
95So in summary, there's no one way to tell whether a mushroom is poisonous or not.
96There are thousands of different kinds of mushrooms.
97So if you wanna eat a wild mushroom, you need to get the help of a mushroom expert.
98But if you're interested, you can learn to become one.
99There are mushroom hunting clubs, where you can meet some of these experts
100and lots of books about all the different kinds of mushrooms.
101That's all for this week's question. Thanks, Isaiah, for asking it.