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An edible mushroom? This brown fungus in pine needles is not a safe find

It grew on the ground in pine woodland and has clearly decurrent gills, but that combination is not enough to make it suitable for the table. The photographs show why it should be left alone.

Photograph submitted by the reader

This is not a mushroom I would recommend eating. Judging by the photographs, it fits brown funnel fungi or related groups best: a brown to yellow-brown cap with a shallow central depression, crowded gills running down the stem, and growth directly among pine needles on the ground.

The difficulty is that this group is easily confused with species unsuitable for eating, and no reliable identifying features here make it a safe edible find. Your uncertainty about its smell removes another important clue, as scent is often needed to distinguish similar brown gilled fungi.

How to investigate further

For a closer identification next time, photograph the whole mushroom from above, underneath the cap and at the stem base before lifting it, ideally including specimens of different ages. Note its smell, whether the gills are soft or brittle, and whether breaking a gill releases milky fluid. But to the question ‘Edible mushroom?’, the answer here is no.

Sources and images 1
  1. Original reader contribution ↗Reader question
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