September puts more edible fungi within reach than any other month on the UK foraging calendar — ceps, chanterelles, parasols and hedgehog fungus are all coming into their own on woodland edges, in parkland and along grassy rides. It's also the month when half-remembered "tests" for telling safe mushrooms from dangerous ones get trotted out again, usually from someone who heard it from someone else. None of the six below hold up, and relying on any of them is how people end up in A&E. Here's why they're wrong, and what to do instead.

"If a slug's been at it, it's safe for me to eat"

Slugs, squirrels and insects have completely different tolerances to fungal toxins than humans do. Death cap and destroying angel — responsible for the vast majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide — are both regularly nibbled by slugs and grazed by other invertebrates without issue. The fact: animal damage tells you something's been eating it, not that it's safe for you. Ignore it entirely as an identification clue.

"A silver spoon will tarnish if there's poison in the pan"

This one's pure folklore. Silver tarnishes on contact with sulphur compounds, which have nothing to do with the amatoxins, muscarine or other compounds that make wild mushrooms dangerous. The same goes for the claim that garlic or onion will darken in a pan of poisonous fungi. The fact: there is no kitchen test that substitutes for identification. If you're reaching for a spoon to check, you haven't identified the mushroom yet.

"Mushrooms on wood are safe, mushrooms on the ground are risky" (or vice versa)

Substrate is a genuinely useful clue, but it's one data point among many, not a rule you can hang safety on. Sulphur tuft and funeral bell — both toxic, the latter potentially fatal — grow on wood in dense clusters that look invitingly like edible species. Meanwhile the deadly destroying angel grows in soil under broadleaf trees, in the same habitat as edible field mushrooms. The fact: where something's growing narrows down the possibilities; it never confirms them.

"Cooking destroys the poison"

Some toxins are heat-affected and cooking genuinely reduces their effect — this is true of a handful of species that are "edible after thorough cooking only". But the amatoxins in death cap and its relatives are stable at cooking temperatures and even survive drying and freezing. Boiling a death cap makes it a cooked death cap, not a safe one. The fact: never pick an unidentified mushroom on the assumption that cooking will sort out any problems. Identify first; worry about preparation second.

"If it smells nice, it's fine"

Smell is a real and useful identification feature for some species — the apricot scent of chanterelles or the aniseed of the wood blewit are genuinely diagnostic when combined with everything else. But death cap, especially when young, often has little smell at all, and some perfectly edible boletes have a strong, unpleasant one. The fact: use smell to support an ID you've already made from cap, gills, stem, spore print and habitat — never as a standalone green light.

"If the cap peels cleanly, it's a true mushroom and safe"

The peel test is sometimes taught as a way to confirm a field mushroom (Agaricus) by checking the cap skin peels back cleanly. It's a real feature of that genus, but it isn't unique to safe species, and beginners applying it outside the specific context it was taught in have used it to wrongly reassure themselves about destroying angel and other Amanita species, which can also show a peelable cap under some conditions. The fact: single-feature tests are only ever valid within the narrow comparison they were designed for. They don't generalise.

What actually works

Every genuinely reliable identification rests on the same combination: cap shape and colour, gill or pore structure and colour, stem features including the base (dig it up — don't snap it), spore print colour, smell, habitat and substrate, and season, cross-checked against more than one reputable source. A single matching feature is never enough on its own, and neither is an app photo match without checking the physical features yourself. If you're building confidence with fungi this autumn, going out with an experienced tutor on one of our seasonal mushroom walks is worth more than any folk test — you get to check your own reasoning against someone who's made the mistakes already so you don't have to. And the oldest rule still stands: when in doubt, throw it out.