Flagellate dermatitis from shiitakes

Posted on May 15, 2015 by admin

Shiitake-induced flagellate dermatitis in Mendocino County, California.

Something that seems to be worthy of a mention is observing a flagellate dermatitis (i.e. a scratch-like reaction that has also been described as “whiplash-like infiltrated erythemas“) that has occasionally resulted from someone eating raw or undercooked shiitake mushrooms. This reaction was first reported in Japan by Nakamura in 1977 (see also Nakamura 1992).

Reports of isolated cases seem to be on the increase around the world. A friend had it happen to her.

flagellate rash following eating undercooked shiitakes

The rash is characterized by parallel raised red lines and urticarial erythemas can be present. It apparently typically clears up without any treatment after several days to a couple of weeks but can be itchy during the duration.

rash on back of thigh after eating undercooked shiitakes

This post MIGHT be about the first report in Mendocino County of a flagellate dermatitis occurring following the consumption of undercooked or raw shiitake mushrooms. This type of rash usually occurs between 48-72 hours following ingestion (24-48 hr according to Ricar et al. 2012) and is believed to be a reaction to unheated or underheated lentinan according to many workers (examples: Díaz-Corpas et al 2011 & Poppe et al. 2012). Lentinan, a polysaccharide, is considered to be one of the primary active compounds in shiitake.
Due to a lack of normal blood indicators or the typical symptomology accompanying allergic reactions (such as hives), this has been proposed to instead be a toxic response to inadequately heated lentinan. However lentinan is also known to induce “the production of the inflammation-promoting signal substance IL-1 and has a vasodilatative effect” and there is “increasing evidence that a genuine immunological sensitization in the sense of a T-cell-mediated late reaction could be involved” (Czarnecka et al. 2014).

Flagellate rash following undercooked shiitake consumption

The person to whom this occurred discovered that none of her doctors had the ability to correctly diagnose this; including a dermatologist. It cleared up within a couple of weeks as is the usual scenario. A visually disturbing internet search using her symptoms as search terms eventually lead to the right identification of the trouble.

Shiitake mushroom fruiting on a log

References cited above:

Czarnecka A.B., B. Kreft & W.C. Marsch (2014) Postępy Dermatologii i Alergologii, 31 (3): 187–190. “Flagellate dermatitis after consumption of Shiitake mushrooms.”
Díaz-Corpas T., A. Mateu-Puchadesa, M.N. Coll-Puigservera & A. Marquina-Vila (2011) Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas, 102: 830-832. “Flagellate Dermatitis After Eating Shiitake Mushrooms.”
Mak R.K. & S.H. Wakelin (2006) British Journal of Dermatology, 154: 800-801. “Shiitake dermatitis: the first case reported from a European country.”
Nakamura T. (1977) Japanese Journal of Clinical Dermatology, 31: 65-68. “Toxicoderma caused by shiitake (Lentinus edodes).”
Nakamura T. (1992) Contact Dermatitis, 27: 65–70. “Shiitake (Lentinus edodes) dermatitis.”
Poppe LM, D. Anders, H. Kneitz, E.B. Bröcker & S. Benoit (2012) Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia, 87 (3):463-465. “Flagellate dermatitis caused by shiitake mushrooms.”
Ricar J., K. Pizinger & P. Cetkovka (2012) The International Society of Dermatology, letter to editor (2 pages).

black chanterelle

Posted on May 6, 2015 by admin

This is following up on an older post (Craterellus) that needed some more images.

These are all from a few years ago. There has not been enough rain for them here in several years.

black chanterelle

Just for comparison here are some black trumpets:

black trumpet

Hericium coralloides

Posted on March 25, 2015 by admin

Hericium coralloides

Hericium coralloides

Hericium coralloides are a lot of fun to hunt, have a great taste, a wonderful texture, smell nice, they feel nice, are incredibly beautiful and seem to be able to produce fruiting bodies until they run out of food to eat. Here in Mendocino County, I’ve collected fruiting bodies during every month from September through June if the weather was cool, mild, foggy and with not too much rain.

Hericium coralloides

Hericium coralloides

Hericium coralloides

Many people think these are rare but this idea arises as the result of at least half a dozen factors. There are two very noteworthy reasons: these fruit best when most other mushroom species are not (they peak in-between the rainy periods and will almost seem to melt if they get rained on very hard) and people are very aggressive about cutting down and removing trees inhabitated by Hericium species. If it occurs anywhere near humans a Hericium tree is frequently removed as firewood or chipped before its first fruiting of coralloides can occur. The easiest and most productive way to find coralloides is not to look for the mushrooms but rather to look for the trees. Finding the trees can be done any time of year and both the tree and the downed parts should then be checked during cool weather. Once you have found the trees you can find the mushrooms, with patience.

Hericium coralloides

Most people are pleasantly surprised to discover just how widespread these actually are in distribution. They might occur in every temperate and forested country on the planet but I have not done an exhaustive evaluation of this subject yet. Aurora notes them to sometimes be locally abundant but my suspicion is that they may only not be locally abundant due to the destruction of their habitat (dead, downed and rotting trees and branches). Or at least, any time that I can find somewhere that lacks removal of those trees local abundance has bee the norm. Maybe I’ve just been lucky?

Hericium coralloides

Hericium coralloides

Hericium coralloides

Hericium coralloides

The first sign to look for is an invagination at or near the base of the tree. Sometimes it will run up a substantial length of the tree or else be present as a large wound elsewhere on the tree. I don’t know if these are caused by the Hericium or if is how they enter but so far they have been invariably present (at least in my experience). (A pictorial on the life of a Hericium tree is in the works and will be posted here as soon as it is completed.)
The easiest tell-tale sign of a tree to watch is the loss of a large section or the upper part of the tree. Generally in 1-2, sometimes 4, years after that has happened coralloides will begin fruiting on the downed section and, if you are lucky, on the main tree. It will do best if the downed section is partially in the air. The organism creates hollow pockets in the main trunk. It can get quite large yet never been seen due to occupying the inside of the tree. Ropy mycelial extensions grow into the tree to feed and sometimes to find a way to the outside to form fruit. A tree can sometimes be taken apart to extract those ropy masses but doing so will end fruiting that year and may actually kill or substantially weaken the Hericium . Being careful not to harm the organism that is located inside of the tree will permit it to live and fruit for many years. The tree below has been the source of regular harvests for the past 9 years. *Easily* 35 pounds of fruit has been collected from this once huge tan-oak carcass. If history can be used to predict, this one is within its last 2-3 of years of productive life.

This tree is winding down after nearly a decade. See the coralloides?

a closer look at that beauty

More higher. These are not always the smartest or safest choice to harvest.

Sometimes they are safely within reach.

This provided both dinner and several nice clones.

Not a bad haul!

Here is a look at that same tree from a different point of view. It is B in this image. C is part of it that fell a while back. A is an unrelated Hericium tree that broke into sections. Fruiting can potentially occur almost anywhere on the trees enclosed by white lines. Small fruit and lines of fruit in formation are noted with white arrows.

Hericium coralloides habitat

Erinaceus and coralloides commonly occur on the same trees here. Usually on tan-oaks, sometimes on actual oaks. Hericium erinaceus most often fruits while the tree is still alive and only occasionally fruits on dead sections. Hericium coralloides fruits entirely on dead wood. The point where the tree top topples is typically the same zone where the erinaceus had been fruiting in previous years. At least this has been true here in Mendocino County within the narrow window of my observations.

I’m not a mushroom expert but I’ve been avidly hunting this particular species for 11 years. And have been learning to cultivate it for the last four years.

Hericium coralloides escaping a bag

Hericium coralloides

Hericium coralloides (front)

Craterellus

Posted on March 24, 2015 by admin

I’m going to miss Winter and the Craterellus season even though it was really not that wet overall this year.

This was a moderately good season for black trumpets intermittently from December through February. Which was great since the last couple of years here were not. They are still around today, heading towards the latter part of March, but nothing I’ve seen has been worth picking.

black-trumpet habitat

black-trumpet

black-trumpets

black-trumpet

black-trumpets

The best advice I ever got for finding these was to look for the holes (in the center of the trumpet) rather than for the mushrooms.

Sometimes mossy banks are good spots to find a few but the most productive areas are those that catch a good accumulation of leaf litter like old logging roads, skid trails or animal trails. Not much eats or bothers black-trumpets so they can get surprisingly large if the weather is perfectly cooperative.

Black-trumpets do not have very much flesh but they do have an intensely chanterelle-like taste. It intensifies when they are dried; a lot of us like to dry and finely shred them for use as a garnish or flavoring.

black-trumpet habitat

black-trumpet in habitat

black-trumpet

Many people commonly call these black chanterelles but this is also potentially confusing as there actually is a black chanterelle and this is not it. That one, which is also a Craterellus species, looks similar to a black trumpet but does not have an open trumpet-like tube and possesses some degree of what are very clearly chanterelle-style gills on the ouside – black trumpets are much smoother and lack those gill structures entirely.

This is very commonly listed as Craterellus cornucopioides or Craterellus fallax but genetics work suggests that Craterellus cornucopioides may not actually occur inside of the USA and that the distribution of Craterellus fallax is limited to the eastern part of the country.
What is present here on the Left Coast is currently being suggested to be one or more undescribed species of Craterellus. (see comments at http://www.mushroomexpert.com/craterellus_fallax.html) They do have a whitish to creamy colored spore print.

black-trumpet habitat

black-trumpets

black-trumpet

The following, on the other hand, is a black chanterelle (Craterellus cinereus) that was photographed here several years ago (these are rather rare here compared to the abundant black trumpets but they have typically been sympatric in their occurrence):

a black chanterelle

They taste very similar to black-trumpets but are (imho) much better and are more intense in their flavor as well as in the production of that awesome lingering sensation that chanterelles leave inside of my mouth. They also have a bit more substance to their flesh. This is my favorite chanterelle species and it is one of my all-time favorite mushrooms period but I’ve only found enough at once to make a large meal a single time (and smaller harvests only a few times). That was by far my most memorable mushroom meal to-date.

Another mushroom species that sometimes has black chanterelle (more often, blue chanterelle) applied to it as a common name is Polyozellus multiplex.

Common names are just the names used commonly by people. There is really no true right or wrong about variable choices of use. What matters is that it is correctly understood by the listener as to what is being discussed.

To keep it interesting, some of the black-trumpets here do develop a bit of texture on their undersides.

black-trumpet expressing some texture

Another odd black trumpet occurs here that can branch densely when the weather is right. If the weather stays cooperative each one of those ‘ears’ can develop a trumpet producing a rather bushy end result but we’ve only seen that occur a couple of times.

black trumpet

Amanita species

Posted on February 13, 2015 by admin

Several of the Amanita species are actually good to eat.

Some are also deadly poisonous so this is an area best left for the experts. I did not even attempt to identify most of what is below as it is too easy to make an error.

People making mistakes when thinking that they are finding cocorras or another edible species that occurs in Europe or Asia might be the most common avenue of fatal mushroom poisonings in the USA. I do not recommend eating anything shown on or linked to from this page.

Cocorra (Amanita calyptroderma)

Amanita pantherina is a species that some people have historically used as an intoxicant. It does not sound particularly interesting in that regard but to each their own.

Amanita pantherina

A yellow Amanita.

Amanita

Another local yellow Amanita species.

a yellow amanita

the Grisette (Amanita vaginata) is perfectly edible but not incredible. These usually only get eaten around here very early in the mushroom season when there is a limited choice of edibles. It is OK and almost as nice as a commercial button mushroom although not as solid in texture.

Amanita vaginata

Possibly some sort of a white Amanita. I am guessing that this is poisonous.

a white Amanita

easy and less easy mushrooms

Posted on February 2, 2015 by admin

These are a few of what occurs here and were encountered this past Winter.

Chanterelles, hedgehogs and shaggy-manes are easy and almost foolproof mushrooms. (Although I agree with Douglas Adam’s warning not to “underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools“.)

Chanterelles potentially do have some look alikes but there are none that will confuse anyone who pays attention to details. If the gills are narrow, deep and nicely-defined, it is not a chanterelle.

Several different chanterelles live here. The last several winters have been lacking adequate rain so all of those chanterelles have been few and far between.

This is the only decent golden chanterelles that I found this entire Winter. (I also found a single white chanterelle but the images did not turn out.)

Cantharellus in habitat in Mendicino County; litter is tan-oak occurring amidst doug-firs

Cantherellus

Cantharellus

These have long beeen known as Cantharellus cibarius but research is revealing that one to be a strictly European species and the multiple Cantharellus species occurring on the Pacific Coast and elsewhere are now being identified and named. (Michael Kuo has a nice page about this.)

Hedgehogs had a slightly better year but it was not great. These have caps that occur in a range of colors from creamy to orange. The teeth and stem are typically whitish and stain orange with age or damage.

This is an easy one with no poisonous look-alikes. Any of the truly inedible Hydnum species are also extremely unpalatable in taste and look quite different.

Hydnum repandum

These are sweet and delicious with a really fine texture but they cause me to produce enough gas internally to potentially fuel the needs of a small community so I avoid eating them.

Shrimp Russulas are also potentially fairly easy — assuming that a person has a mind for details. Errors are quite possible if not.

These are not my favorites, the flavor is fine when they are young but I do not care for the texture of Russula species in general. They are OK in a pinch.

Russula xerampelina

Prince Agaric (Agaricus augustus) is awesome in almost every way (taste, texture, aroma and appearance) and this species had an above average year here. They also tend to fruit alongside roads and near other human activity. They are known to be heavy metal accumulators of lead and cadmium so I do not eat many of them.

This species has some potential look-alikes but those have pink gills when mature (gills on this one are dark brown when mature) or they have a different spore color or they have a foul smell.

Agaricus augustus working out with some weights

Agaricus augustus

I almost wish that these were not so damn delicious. They remind me a lot of a portabello someone smothered with almond-extract. Flies target this one really fast so it needs to be harvested and either eaten or refrigerated as soon as possible after it comes up. The one below is older than ideal for that reason.

Agaricus augustus

This species typically fruits here from dew-fall during the normally dry month of June but for whatever reason they have fruited intermittently through all of last summer, fall and winter following periods of rain.

Shaggy-manes (Coprinus comatus) are very easy to recognize but turn to weeping ink rather quickly. This is among the nicest of the edible mushrooms but is known to be an indicator of arsenic-containing soils. As it is known to accumulate arsenic and other heavy metals this one is best enjoyed infrequently.

Coprinus comatus

a rain-beaten Coprinus comatus

inside of Coprinus comatus

Waxy caps (Hygrocybe sp.) are considered to be edible but are also known to be heavy metal accumulators, the gorgeous red and yellows apparently come from cadmium, so they are not a good choice for food. They also are not particularly exciting in either their flavor or their texture.

Hygrocybe sp,

Hygrocybe sp.

cocorra

Posted on December 12, 2014 by admin

Amanita calytroderma is more often known as cocorra.

I’m not saying to eat this one. It’s not a bad mushroom. Some people think it is great. It’s not my favorite as they are a bit crunchy but they do have a profoundly rich flavor. Wow. In a hearty soup stock this contribution of this fungus is insane. I’ve heard they make great pickles but just try to get someone else to eat one.

The toxic look-alike problem is really worth getting educated on as it is more likely to kill a person not-nearly-quickly-enough rather than just making them sick. I’ve *heard* that the toxic Amanitas taste really great too. Or at least that is what has been claimed by survivors; one of which also related entering a demonic realm of vividly-intense hallucinatory hell that was unlike anything I’ve heard described before or since.

Both edible and deadly Amanitas can sometimes be found growing together so consumption of the unexpanded “eggs” is not a smart idea.

These are correctly identified. Please do not use them for identification!

Amanita calyptroderma

Amanita calyptroderma

Amanita calyptroderma

Amanita calyptroderma

Amanita calyptroderma

Amanita calyptroderma

Amanita calyptroderma

Amanita calyptroderma

Fungi

Posted on September 7, 2010 by admin

This zeller’s bolete was perhaps the best dressed mushroom of the season.

Although, sometimes earthtones, like this Prince Agaricus, have their own appeal.

forest life; Agaricus-subrufescens-2014nov14

Matsutakes have been fruiting!

Amanita calyptroderma is having an OK year, not as good as many but they were still out in abundance.

These next ones on the other hand are easy and foolproof. This magnificent lion’s mane somehow was overlooked for much longer than would be normal.

forest life; lionsmane-2014nov8-1 — ***Hericium erinaceus***

forest life; lionsmane-2014nov8-2 — ***Hericium erinaceus***

Coralloides always reminds me of something from the ocean. It might be my favorite mushroom, bar none, but if I’m not careful during harvesting and foraging they sure are a lot of work to clean.

forest life; coralloides-2014nov8- — ***Hericium coralloides***

forest life; coralloides-2014nov6 — *Hericium coralloides* (cultivated)

forest life; coralloides-2014nov15 — ***Hericium coralloides***

Barrsia oregonense

This is an edible truffle that is associated with doug-fir.

Craterellus sp.

an earth-star:

Phaeolus-schweinitzii — A dyer’s conk (*Phaeolus schweinitzii*)

witch's butter (Tremella mesenterica) — witch’s butter (*Tremella mesenterica*)

Daldinia concentrica
Carbon balls

Daldinia concentrica

Posted on January 10, 2010 by admin

Daldinia concentrica is also known as carbon balls.

This fungus exists as a long-lived endophyte inside of the tissues of Douglas-fir. Fruiting is triggered by drying following the death of the tree but the role that the fungus plays during those prior decades of life is not clear.

Daldinia concentrica

a red bolete

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

Red boletes are supposed to be poisonous or at least inedible.

I don’t know the species.

a red bolete