Fall Foraging for Ringless Honey Mushrooms and Tiger Sawgill in Iowa

10/10/2024

By Joshua Janusiak

*Note: When foraging for wild mushrooms, it is very important to be 100% sure of identification and to know the toxic lookalikes in your area.

The Fun of Foraging Mushrooms

Even despite an insanely dry fall, it’s still possible to find mushrooms in Iowa. A few weeks ago, on a run in Iowa City, my boyfriend and I went for a run together and saw an enormous cluster of what looked like honey mushrooms (named for their caramel color) growing out of a low stump in the middle of a patch of grass near the paved riverside path, only a few yards away from the Iowa River. They appeared clean and bountiful. We decided to take a jog back to the site the next day, equipped with foraging materials (this time, it was simply a backpack and my ‘PictureMushroom’ app). Upon our return, less than 24 hours later, the mushrooms had become completely infested with a stunning variety of creepy crawlies, including what looked like worms, spiders, flies, etc. It was honestly a shocking sight, and a shockingly quick change from their previous state. Either way, it can be considered a fact that, when it comes to foraging mushrooms, timing is delicate.

Tiger Sawgill

Disappointed, but not disheartened, we decided to search the surrounding area. Where one fungus is found, more are likely to surround! In that same patch of grass, we encountered some very visible white-looking mushrooms growing not in a cluster (like the honey mushrooms) but scattered in a less claustrophobic arrangement, all in the same general area. We identified these on site (and more carefully later) as Tiger Sawgill mushrooms, an edible specimen with a taste similar to shiitake mushrooms. One source that I read on the internet said that the person who named the Tiger Sawgill may have gotten tigers confused with leopards, since the pattern on the cap of the Tiger Sawgill resembles a leopard due to its irregular dark spots on the cap. Tiger Sawgills, I found, have very tough stems so are better used as an addition to soups (like miso soup) and sauces (like teriyaki or stir-fry sauce) in the form of a powder. I rinsed, dehydrated (using a dehydrator), and ground them into a fine powder, which ended up being a great method for storing and using these guys.

Ringless Honey Mushrooms

Satisfied with our collection, and still leaving quite a few specimens behind for reproduction purposes, we took a short jaunt towards some trees a bit farther from the river. Growing about a foot away from a full grown tree (I think it was a cottonwood?) was another collection of quite a few gorgeous and bounteous clusters of even more honey mushrooms. These we identified as ‘ringless honey mushrooms’, whose clusters emerge from the ground at a single growing point from the mycelium below. Ringless honey mushrooms are best picked young (which made a lot of sense given our immediately prior experience with the older ones).

We did a bit more research and identification with these ones once we returned home, since there are multiple known brown-colored toxic mushrooms in the general area that grow on wood or under trees. Their stems are a bit rigid and crack almost like a soft, hollow stick. I even did a spore print, which means that I placed one cap on a white piece of paper, one cap on a black piece of paper, then covered both caps with a glass for 24 hours. The results were positive that they were honey mushrooms, since the spore print was white, and that was the last test I had to do to really confirm their species and distinguish them from the toxic lookalikes. These mushrooms lasted a good week in the fridge, and we used them for a delicious soup and some other dishes. None of the mushrooms found from this trip were wasted.

*Note: When foraging wild mushrooms, even if the identification is 100% positive that the species you found is an edible mushroom, some mushrooms are best boiled for a longer time than store-bought (for better digestion and possible breakdown of irritating or toxic substances that may be present in very small amounts) or even ‘pre-boiled’ in their own bowl, getting rid of the water, and then adding the ‘shrooms to your main dish.

Conclusion

While there is never a guarantee that you will find what you are looking for when you go foraging for mushrooms, if you keep your eye out and have great identification skills and resources, you just might find a few (or a bunch!) of delicious wild edible mushrooms, which have many health benefits. Happy ‘shrooming!