That's why I did mushrooms, so l could see something I'd never seen before. It worked.

Sounds like bird watchng to me. The thrill of the hunt after yet another one not on your list. I would enjoy foraging for mushrooms I can eat.

Morels ... I love hunting morels. I just wish I would find one once in a while.

I enjoy hiking the woods and meadows here for mushroom and I enjoy picking the edibles ones. My favourite ones are the giant Western Puffballs and the bear's tooth comb mushroom.

I live near a Botanical Garden and a State Park with many hiking trails. One day while hiking, I noticed a huge hunk of mushroom (salmon color) growing out of the base of a cut tree stump. Picked it up and brought it home. I looked it up in the "wild edibles" book. It was called " The Chicken of the Wood"... safe to eat...I taught. I sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper. I couldn't wait to eat it. Well, I liked it but it didn't like me. I was violently ill for few days with vomiting and diarrhea. After I survived it, I learned that I had consumed way too much too soon. I should have had eaten it very little the first few times. My body still rejects all mushrooms, wild. That same kind of mushroom now grows in my yard, at the base of an oak tree. Now, I just enjoy it's beauty. No desire to eat it, yet. Live and learn, I say. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

I know exactly where the mushrooms are in my Super Market

I like magic mushrooms

I fully understand what you are saying. I have spent a lot of time trying to identify mushrooms while not really daring to eat more than a few I was certain about! But I have been criticised for always wanting to identify stuff rather than just enjoying the beauty and variety of nature. Richard Dawkins' 'Unweaving the Rainbow' was a great boost for me.

I did it a lot in Michigan. Mostly honey mushrooms. We picked kushabreta, morels (when we could find them.),and a few others. I can't wait to see what's available in Texas.

Mushroom gathering in Autumn in my early farmimg days was part and parcel of country living. But as the land became more and more heavily fertisiled over the years, then decades, it has become a thing of the past, fresh wild mushrooms.

I am fascinated by anything I find, a Mycena, possibly lampadis or a variant of chlorophos found on a beach walk one night, just in the dunes among the roots of she oaks. Sorry for the poor quality, I am no photographer, and long eposures are beyond me.

I used to love to identify and photograph the different, colorful mushrooms in the woods, but didn't dare eat anything I found..only ones I bought at the health food coop. Here in Thailand, mushrooms are a staple food item.

YES! I love to find edibles but also just love to take pics of them. They are so interesting and varied and pretty. I live in coastal Oregon so we get tons of different types around here.

I only have a few that i will pick to eat and i still work very vigilantly to identify them. I used to take activity hikes with people who use it for exersize, i found i enjoyed my surroundings too much to “run” through the woods, so now i forage explore and soak in the experiance.

A friend of mine from when I had lived in Pennsylvania had given me a tip for finding what he called a rams head mushroom. They are very good to eat the texture is similar to chicken meat. The grow at the base of oak trees. I have never located one, perhaps one day.

Lol, I used to hunt mushrooms back in high school.

Watched it on that Discovery show about catching worms, hunting ginseng and eels. Have seen them in my yard and in the woods - never tried to identify them but maybe this year I will.

Yes, sorta. As an amateur photographer, I will take pix of them because they are fascinating, but I won't necessarily be able to identify them.

As a former microbiologist, I know they look cool under the microscope.

I had a delightful Botany lecturer (named of all things, Flora McKenzie) who specialised in fungi. Her advice was to always leave a sample of any you ate (including tinned) with a written note in the fridge as she felt that proper identification was not guaranteed.

Ya know, I’ve got a friend who not only hunts mushrooms but also grow shiitakes in his backyard. I intend to grow some in my back yard this year.

I took a mycology course at Rutgers when I was there many years ago. My professor, Dr. John Maiello who had a PhD in mycology with all his knowledge and training in the subject told us he would NEVER eat a wild mushroom found outdoors. I always took his advice and recommend others do the same. What may appear safe when identifying from books could be a slightly different species and could be deadly. You could have died from it. Fortunately you got lucky and only sick. Best advice is to only buy mushrooms from the grocery store where they have been grown from stock that is known and tested to be safe to eat.