Foraging & Collecting

Mushroom safety — morels and their deadly lookalikes

Morels are a Missouri spring favorite. Some lookalikes can hurt you, and cooking does not fix a bad ID. Use a field guide and an experienced eye.

Main safety rule

Never eat any wild mushroom unless you've positively identified it as a safe edible and cooked it thoroughly. This page teaches principles — it is not a substitute for a field guide and an experienced eye.

Morel vs. false morel

Pitted and hollow, or wrinkled and chambered

True morel

True morels come up from the ground in spring. The cap is pitted like a honeycomb, and when you slice one from top to bottom it's completely hollow — cap through stem.

False morel (toxic)

False morels (Gyromitra) look wrinkled, folded, or brain-like, and they are NOT cleanly hollow inside — they're chambered or cottony. The big red false morel is common here. Cooking does NOT make false morels reliably safe — treat every false morel as toxic.

Avoid entirely

The deadly ones to never eat

Destroying angel and other amanitas

All-white, with white gills, a ring on the stem, and a bulbous, cup-like base (a volva). They can cause fatal liver failure — often after a deceptive day or two of 'feeling better.' Never eat a white-gilled mushroom growing from a cup.

Little brown mushrooms (LBMs), including the Deadly Galerina

Small brown mushrooms are hard even for experts to tell apart, and some are deadly. Avoid the whole group.

Green-spored false parasol (Chlorophyllum molybdites)

The big lawn mushroom that sends more Missourians to the ER than any other — a good reason never to eat mushrooms from the yard.

The golden rules

Positive ID, or don't eat it.
Learn from people, not just pictures — the Missouri Mycological Society holds forays and identification days.
Cook wild mushrooms thoroughly, and try only a small amount the first time — even true morels make some people sick, and morels eaten with alcohol can cause a reaction.
When in doubt, throw it out.

If someone got sick

If someone eats a wild mushroom or plant and feels sick, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or get emergency care. Save a sample, take photos, note where it was found, and don't wait for symptoms to get worse.

Poison Control: 1-800-222-1222 · Emergency: 911

Before you gather

Official sources and current guidance

The item and the land manager decide what you may gather.

Last checked: 2026-06-18. Rules differ by land type and change over time — and eating a wild plant or mushroom is a health decision, not a website decision. When in doubt, ask the land manager, check a field guide, and don't eat anything you can't name with certainty.

This is a summary, not legal advice. Foraging and collecting rules change and depend on whose land you're on and what you're taking — confirm with the landowner or land manager before you gather. For a suspected poisoning, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or 911.

Heads up: No web page — including this one — is enough to eat a wild mushroom by. Learn from an experienced forager or the Missouri Mycological Society, use a field guide, and when in doubt, throw it out.

MDC — Field guide (mushrooms)
Poison Help — or call 1-800-222-1222

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