ROCHESTER — Adam Korejwa took a bite of the mushroom that had been dug out of the ground just minutes earlier and promptly spit it back out.

The bolete mushroom wasn’t so bitter, Korejwa said, a sign that it might be edible — but also possibly not edible.

An amateur naturalist and member of the Rhode Island Mycological Society, Korejwa did the “spit test” on a fungus found in Shoolman Preserve while leading a mushroom foraging walk Saturday, Oct. 19 with the Marion Natural History Museum.

More mushrooms were spotted just moments after the bolete spit tested by Korejwa, who cautioned that he was a “a bit of a germaphobe” prior to biting the wild fungus. 

“I am not doing a spit test again,” he said.

The taste test on the mushroom growing on the ground of the Rochester Land Trust property was one of several mycological insights provided during the forage.

There are thousands upon thousands of species of mushrooms in the world. The Rhode Island Mycological Society recently identified its 1000th type of mushroom, according to Korejwa.

He brought to the walk a mushroom that three heads of mycological societies couldn’t identify and said he knows between 200 to 250 species himself.

Korejwa said Shoolman Preserve was a great place to explore for mushrooms. Deep in the property, there’s not much underbrush that would impede mushroom foraging. 

There were puffballs that popped dark green dust into the air upon contact. There was the bright white cheese polypore. There was a thick mushroom that snapped like chalk and a thin one that tore like string.  

Mushrooms were found everywhere during the tour — on the ground, on trees, on sticks and in horse droppings.

“Don’t ignore the horse poop,” Korejwa said. “There may be mushrooms growing in it.”

Dog waste, on the other hand, could be ignored.

“Don’t look in there,” Korejwa said. “There’s no mushrooms in there.”

The horse waste is different. In fact, sometimes mushrooms with hallucinogenic properties grow in it, according to Korejwa.

All mushrooms are safe to handle, and any mushroom can be tasted, even the deadly ones, according to Korejwa.

Just make sure to spit it out.