Top 20 Edible Mushrooms Popular in Winter Garden

Red chanterelles can be found growing within hardwood forests across eastern North America. These small but striking mushrooms range from orange to red to pink in color. Edible and boasting complex flavors, many chanterelles are highly sought after. The red chanterelle, though less famous than some of its close relatives, is no exception. This species can be used in all sorts of recipes, with a vaguely sweet or piney taste.

Common laccaria may sound like a malevolent name for a mushroom, but fret not! This species is so-called because its appearance is highly variable, with individual caps taking on a whole host of colors, from whitish to pinkish to dark brown.

True to its name, ruby bolete is bright red when young but fades to a greenish-red when older. This mushroom is most commonly found growing in groups in open areas or on forest edges. However, it may be difficult to distinguish ruby bolete from other boletes.

Silky sheaths (Volvariella bombycina) are widely distributed, being found in temperate and sub-tropical forests around the world, but rare. The fruitbody emerges from a silky-textured volva, and the mushroom's white or off-white cap is usually quite smooth as well. One of this species' favored microhabitats is the rotted knotholes of mature maples, elms, oaks, or beeches.

The cap of A. subrubescens is between 6 to 14.5 cm (2.4 to 5.7 in) in diameter, with a central, eccentric (away from the center), or rarely lateral (attached to the edge of cap) stem. Initially, the cap is convex with an involute margin, flattening out with age. The cap margin may be folded or flat. The cap surface in young specimens is smooth but soon forms appressed scale-like spots, which may transform into scales in age. Initially, the cap has white margins and a brownish-violet center with scale-like spots; the center later becomes orange-brownish or ochraceous brown. According to Canadian mycologist James Ginns, who described North American Albatrellus species in 1997, some North American specimens may be covered with blackish-gray to purple-gray fibrils, but this characteristic is not seen in European collections. The cap discolors yellowish when bruised. The stem is 1.6 to 7 cm (0.6 to 2.8 in) long and 1 to 2 cm (0.4 to 0.8 in) thick, cylindrical, irregular, and its base may be somewhat pointed, or bulbous. Initially white, the stem develops orange/violet spots and later brownish orange spots; in old specimens the stem may be brownish brick red. The tubes on the pore surface (underside of the cap) are about 2.5–3 mm long and decurrent in attachment. The pores are small, measuring about 2–3 per millimeter. They are initially greenish-white, but later turn dark brown; dried specimens can have pores that are tinted green. Fruit bodies have a "faintly fragrant, pleasant" odor; in his original report on the species, Murrill noted that specimens left to dry in an oven developed a strong odor of burnt sugar. The taste of the mushroom has been described variously as indistinct, or "distinctly bitter". The type material was noted by Murrill to taste bitter, an observation later corroborated by Pouzar with European collections. A. subrubescens mushrooms are mildly toxic: consumption causes a gastrointestinal illness that usually subsides one to four hours after ingestion. In deposit, the spores are white. The spores are 3.4–4.7 by 2.2–3.4 µm, ellipsoid to ovoid in shape, and amyloid (absorbing iodine when stained with Melzer's reagent). Most have a single large oil drop. The spore-bearing cells (the basidia) are club-shaped, 12–16 µm long by 5.7–7.7 µm thick, and have four thin, slightly curved sterigmata that are 3.4–4.3 µm long. The hymenium lacks any cystidia. The hyphal system is monomitic, meaning that the context is made of thin-walled generative hyphae. These hyphae have lengths in the range of 3.5–30 µm (most commonly 6–17 µm), with thin walls (up to 1 µm thick), and are hyaline (translucent). Although they are inamyloid, some hyphae have internal masses that are colored pale bluish-gray to black, which makes them appear collectively grayish-black under the microscope. Gloeoporous hyphae (wide and thin-walled with refractive contents) are also scattered throughout the context, as well as some hyphae with expanded tips that are thick-walled and amyloid.

Native to Europe and North America, old man of the woods(Strobilomyces strobilaceus) is notable for its unusual coloring and texture, which visually resembles dark, overlapping scales against a white base. Interestingly, this mushroom has been depicted on a Swiss postal stamp worth fifty centimes.

This absolutely striking mushroom looks like something out of a fairy tale. The entire fruitbody of the violet webcap - cap, stalk, and gills - ranges in color from a light lavender to a very deep purple. The species' caps are bulbous and pockmarked, often appearing velvety. Though a feast for the eyes, this species is usually considered inedible.

The tiger sawgill (Lentinus tigrinus) is a small mushroom with a name that is not particularly accurate. Sporting neither the color nor the pattern that we commonly associate with the tiger, it has a subdued, pale cap that is usually covered in brown patches. The eighteenth-century European that named the species may have been thinking of a leopard.

The blusher mushroom is so named because it “blushes” to a pinkish red color when cut or bruised. It is found in many countries around the world, although it may not be native to the southern hemisphere. It contains a hemolytic toxin that can cause anemia if eaten.

The amethyst deceiver (Laccaria amethystina) is a breathtaking mushroom that pops up from coniferous forest floors. The caps are a striking violet color in youth and are generally flat with a small indentation when the stem connects. As they mature, this violet color transforms to a less than breathtaking grey color, making it quite hard to identify after a certain age positively. Not edible.