To the best of our knowledge — and I must emphasize that more studies are needed — it appears the mushrooms coming from oil-contaminated soils are edible. However, a major problem is that with oil spills, heavy metals and other toxins also co-occur, so it is safer to let the mushrooms rot and return into the soil food web rather than cooking them for dinner.
See also: Paul Stamet TED talk: “How Mushrooms Can Save the World”
January 23, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Paul is amazing and all his books are about the same — especially Mycelium Running, which is a hands-on manual for mycoremediation. Crazy synch, too, I’m taking a mental break for a Paul Stamets mega-post on Urban Evolution.