Edible mushrooms are one of the most exciting things to learn how to forage, but it can be an intimidating and sometimes dangerous practice. These easy-to-identify edible mushrooms are a safe place to start your wild mushroom journey!

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Wildcrafting Weeds

If you want to learn more about the edible and medicinal weeds that surround us and how to use them, check out my eBook: Wildcrafting Weeds: 20 Easy to Forage Edible and Medicinal Plants (that might be growing in your backyard)!

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Mushroom Hunting for Beginners

Mushroom hunting can be a bit scary, especially if you’re a beginner. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it, though. Everyone has to start somewhere!

You can learn how to identify and forage for wild edible mushrooms, even if you are a beginning mushroom hunter. Finding mushrooms in the forest is mysterious and satisfying.

I advise beginners to start mushroom foraging by simply paying attention. Observe different mushrooms that you may see, and consult a guidebook as you go along.

Don’t pick or eat any mushroom you find until you verify what the mushroom is with an experienced hunter, even if you think you know what it is.

I recommend starting with these eight varieties of edible mushrooms: oysters, morels, lobster, chanterelles, lion’s mane, chicken of the woods, hedgehog, and giant puffballs.

I chose these eight because they are some of the easiest to identify once you know what to look for, are somewhat common, and are super tasty!

But First! Get a Mushroom Guidebook

The first thing anyone interested in mushroom foraging should do is buy a mushroom identification guidebook.

Two of my favorites are All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora and Mushrooms of the Northeast by Teresa Marrone and Walt Sturgeon. They both have good pictures and great descriptions while still being small enough to carry on the trail easily.

This Field Guide to North American Mushrooms from the National Audubon Society looks like another great option, too.

Related: 12 Best Books on Foraging and Wildcrafting

Easy to Identify Edible Mushrooms

Before we get into the eight easy to identify edible mushrooms list, I want to clarify something everyone should always remember: mushrooms with gills are tricky. Don’t skip this part.

Mushrooms with Gills are Tricky

Seven out of eight of these mushrooms do not have regular gills. Only one does have regular gills.

Mushrooms with gills can be very hard to distinguish from one another, and several of them are poisonous.

In fact, the death cap and destroying angel can kill you with just a couple of bites!

It’s much better to be safe than sorry.

Oyster mushrooms are the only ones in this group that do have regular gills, and I explain what makes them different below.

Oyster Mushrooms

As I mentioned, oyster mushrooms are the only mushrooms with gills that I recommend anyone to forage, unless you are a highly skilled mycologist.

This is because oyster mushrooms almost always grow on dead wood, such as trees, stumps, or downed logs.

While they sometimes appear to be growing out of the ground from wood chips or other substrate, I would not trust that they are oysters unless you find them on wood.

Oyster mushrooms grow in shelf like clusters, usually on hardwoods, but sometimes on conifers.

They generally like cooler weather, so spring and fall are the best times to find them. They are quite common, and very tasty!

Read more about oysters in my post Foraging for Oyster Mushrooms.

Morel Mushrooms

Morel mushrooms are the darling of many edible mushroom hunters, and for good reason! They are fun to forage for, and for some reason when they are found the excitement is huge!

Maybe it’s because they pop up in the springtime and we are all yearning for wild mushrooms by then. Or, it could be that they seem elusive in hiding, and can’t be easily cultivated.

The only way to get these mushrooms is in the great outdoors. Morels like south-facing hillsides and are typically found in sunny patches. They also commonly come up in areas that have been recently burned.

They are one of the easier mushrooms to identify, as nothing looks quite like them.

Morel mushrooms have a pitted and deeply ridged, honeycomb like cap, and are completely hollow when cut in half.

Morel mushrooms need to be cooked before eaten.

There are some mushrooms that are called “false morels” because they are somewhat similar in resemblance, but they are not hollow. They are not so toxic that they can kill you with only a few bites, but they can definitely cause a lot of gastric distress.

Read more about morels in my post Foraging for Morel Mushrooms.

Hedgehog Mushrooms

Hedgehog mushrooms are fun to find, and they go by several names, such as Sweet Tooth, Hedgies, Belly Buttons, and Sheep’s Foot.

Hedgehogs (Hydnum sp.) hold all of their nicknames for good reason. Their surface is spiky like a hedgehog, they taste sweet, and their irregular shape leads to belly buttons and sheep’s feet.

These mushrooms are common and are easily found across the United States and worldwide. They are easy to identify and have a sweet and mild taste similar to chanterelles.

The hedgehog mushroom has a spherical cap with a dent on one side, which gives it the name sheep’s foot. As the mushroom ages, however, the dent smooths out.

They are usually light in color, a yellowish peach. Depending on the species and location, they can range to a darker color, almost brown.

Most distinctively is the hedgehog-like spines that grow on the underside of the cap. The spines, or “teeth,” can grow to be about a quarter inch, have a pale color, and can be easily removed by the force of a finger.

Hedgehogs are found in forests and always grow at the roots of trees in a symbiotic relationship. Some examples of the roots where you might find them are oak, beech, pine, spruce, and Douglas fir.

This list is not extensive as these mushrooms have a wide variety of hosts, but learning to identify the trees in your area can also be helpful.

There are at least 49 different species of hedgehog mushrooms! They all look similar, are easily identified as such, and are edible.

Otherwise, there is no close look like these tasty edible mushrooms, which makes them perfect for beginning mushroom foragers.

Read more about Foraging Hedgehog Mushrooms.

Lobster Mushrooms

Lobster mushrooms are cool because they actually aren’t mushrooms at all. Instead, they are a fungus that grows on certain species of mushrooms, engulfing its host.

They are especially common in the Pacific Northwest, and they are quite unmistakable once found!

Lobster mushrooms have a hard red to orange exterior and a white interior, thus resembling a lobster.

The best part about lobster mushrooms is that there are no poisonous look-alikes at all!

Read more about lobsters in my post Foraging for Lobster Mushrooms.

Chanterelle Mushrooms

Chanterelle mushrooms are perhaps my favorite mushrooms to forage. While finding any wild edible mushroom is exciting, I get an extra little charge from chanterelles. They are beautiful and delectable!

They are typically found in the fall after the first rains. But in some areas with higher humidity, they can be found throughout the summer.

Chanterelle mushrooms are yellow to orange in color, and have blunt ridges that fork and run down the stem rather than true gills.

The stems are solid, the flesh is white, and they have a fruity aroma.

There is another variety of chanterelles that are similar in appearance, but have hollow stems. They are called winter or yellowfoot chanterelles.

There are two possible chanterelle look-a-likes that are poisonous: the jack-o’-lantern and false chanterelle.

Both of these have true gills rather than blunt ridges, so that is key to properly distinguishing a true chanterelle.

Read more about chanterelles in my post Foraging for Chanterelle Mushrooms.

Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms

Chicken of the woods mushrooms (laetiporus sp.) are common, easy to find and identify, and grow primarily in the summertime. Some regions will see them in late spring to early autumn depending on the climate.

These delicious edible mushrooms are decomposing, meaning they’ll be found on dying or dead wood. Their yellow-orange hue makes them easy to spot on a tree’s bark.

They grow in clusters in a horizontal “shelf” pattern. The underside is usually bright yellow, and it has a thicker ridge on the outside edges.

Chicken of the Woods has a unique look, and there really are no other mushrooms that it can reasonably be mistaken for. These edible mushrooms taste, you guessed it, like chicken! They cook up nicely as a substitute for fried chicken.

Read more about Foraging Chicken of the Woods.

Lion’s Mane Mushrooms

Lion’s mane mushrooms (Hericium erinaceus) have a distinct look that makes them super easy to identify with a whimsical cartoon look featuring long white spines.

Not to be confused with a hedgehog mushroom, when a lion’s mane is young with short spines, they are sometimes called a faceless hedgehog.

Lion’s mane and other Hericium species share a common feature: they all are white or light in color with dangling “teeth” of varying lengths, depending on the species.

Lion’s mane is a single ball or clump with no branching. It has dangling teeth that can grow to be 2 inches long or more and look like a big pom pom with a ball-like shape.

They can be small to very large, even up to one foot across!

They are a fall-season mushroom that grows on dead or dying oak, beech, or maple trees. The only exception is the subspecies that grows in the west of the US, which primarily grows on conifers.

There are many subspecies of Hericium, and they are all edible mushrooms that look similar, so there isn’t much risk of mistakes or look-a-likes when foraging for lion’s mane.

Read more about lion’s mane in my post Foraging Lion’s Mane Mushrooms.

Giant Puffball Mushroom

Giant puffball mushrooms are one of the easiest edible mushrooms to identify, and based on their size are easy to spot if you’ve got some in your area.

Several species of mushrooms resemble small puffball mushrooms, and some are toxic. However, once you cut them open, you will know which is which.

An edible puffball will be bright white inside, with no trace of gills. Since some puffball mushrooms are also toxic, these two features must be present together to identify them as edible puffballs.

If the puffball’s interior is white but has gills, it’s toxic. If it’s black, it will be toxic. However, if it’s yellow or green, it’s past its edible phase and is ready to do its magical poof of dusty-like pores spreading when popped open.

A giant puffball mushroom looks exactly like it sounds: a big orb-shaped mushroom that is white on the outside. If you’ve found the edible type, it will be white on the inside, too.

Read more about giant puffball mushrooms in Foraging Puffball Mushrooms.

Well, there you have it! Eight easy to identify edible mushrooms, perfect for the beginning mushroom forager.

Note: Please consult your guidebooks, go with an experienced mushroom hunter, and start foraging!

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