It's that time of year again. Autumn, dewy mornings, mists and succulent mushrooms popping up through the grass.
Or are they?
Health experts have again warned the public to avoid eating wild mushrooms after 10 people were treated after taking a chance on what they thought was safe to eat.
The reality is it isn't that easy to identify the safe fungi because, it seems, for every one that is safe to eat, there's hoards out there trying to mimic it and convince you it's safe for a fry-up.
Even one of the country's leading fungi experts says, after four year's study, he still takes extreme caution.
Dr Brett Summerell, Deputy Executive Director at the Royal Botanic Gardens, who studied mycology the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, says carrying a guide book won't necessarily save your bacon.
"Frankly the books that are out there are just a guide to the very common ones and they are not comprehensive by any stretch of the imagination," he said.
"Unless you are out there with someone who really has a lot of experience identifying the mushrooms in that particular area you are much better off going to the supermarket or the greengrocer.
"I think it [those getting poisoned] are mainly people who are overconfident in thinking they know the mushrooms in an area.We still have a huge number of species that are not scientifically described and they may look like what people have seen overseas but they can be quite different."
Take for example the yellow stainer mushroom, it looks very similar to the standard field mushroom. When you start to pull the yellow stainer apart you get some yellow pigments coming from it. It is in the same genus as your standard field mushroom and it smells like a standard mushroom.But you wouldn't want to eat it.
The Death Cap and its close relation volvariella, an edible Straw Fungus also bear a similarity to each other. Would he be confident which one to put into the pan with a knob of butter?
"I would probably be confident now but that's only because I have been specifically looking out for them over the last five years, ever since we have had these problems, he said.
Ideally if you think you are going to eat something and you aren't 100 per cent sure you are better off taking a photo of it so if you do get sick there is something to base identification on.
Dr Jeremy McAnulty, Director of NSW Health Protection with NSW Health, said t so far in February 10 people have attended NSW hospital emergency departments with poisoning after eating wild mushrooms, eight more cases than is usually recorded for this time of the year.
Four of the patients were recorded in Nepean Blue Mountains, two in Western Sydney, three in Central Coast and one in the Illawarra Shoalhaven.
He said: "Some varieties of mushrooms, such as Death Cap mushrooms, can cause death due to kidney and liver damage."
If you experience any symptoms following wild mushroom ingestion contact the NSW Poisons Information Centre on 13 11 26 urgently.
