More than 130 people have already been poisoned by mushrooms this year in New Aquitaine. Mushroom pickers are therefore invited to be extra vigilant for the end of the picking season.
In Souvigné in Deux-Sèvres, mushrooms populate the floor of the Hermitain forest, but you have to be very careful. Frédéric Talineau, amateur mycologist, knows: picking can involve risks. Learning to be wary of false friends therefore becomes necessary.
“Here, we have a false chanterelle, often confused with the real chanterelle. It has an orange color like the chanterelle. But in the chanterelle, they are really folds, and not blades”describes the mushroom picker.
Each species has its specificities and therefore its details to which you must be vigilant. Citrine amanitas, pink mycenae, boletus, nothing escapes his eye, and in case of doubt: “We collect and study the mushroom at home“, recalls Frédéric Talineau.
- Eat mushrooms in small quantities, well cooked, and never with every meal.
- Never collect mushrooms in potentially soiled or polluted places (roadsides, composts, amended fields, etc.) because these organisms, composed of more than 80% water, are real “sponges”, and accumulate enormous amounts of fungi. toxic compounds.
- Pick only specimens in good condition and remove the entire mushroom (stem and cap) to allow identification.
- Be vigilant: poisonous mushrooms may grow where you picked edible mushrooms another year.
- Avoid picking up young specimens which have not finished forming, which encourages confusion, and old specimens which risk being damaged or colonized by worms or insects.
One hundred and thirty-seven people have already been poisoned in 2023 in the region, according to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine poison control center. The season is far from over, however. Applications exist to dispel doubts. But pickers are still urged to remain on their guard. The photograph of the mushroom is compared in the application, but not without errors. “There, the application recognizes a lepiote, but it is not that at all, and a mushroom that is not at all edible”underlines Frédéric Talineau.
Read also : Mushrooms: what you need to know to pick porcini mushrooms, chanterelles or chanterelles legally
Pharmacies are a good place to get advice. Bernard Pénicaud, pharmacist, indicates “that the longer the intoxication is delayed, the more serious it will be.”
“If you don’t practice, it’s not easy to stay at a top level”, adds Bernard Pénicaud. It requires the establishment of a well-defined protocol: “There should be a real act, because it takes time when a family brings us a bag full of mushrooms.”
It’s also difficult to stay up to date when every year, 5,000 new species are discovered around the world. Another good reflex to adopt: head towards the best-known species, so as not to compromise the end of the mushroom picking season. In case of doubt, mycologist circles are always ready to give their opinion.
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