About the method

What this site is

Every record on Lamella is built the same way. Macroscopic characters are recorded in the order they are examined at the bench: cap, gills, stem, veil. Spore dimensions are given as a range of measured values in micrometres and are taken from a water mount at 1000x with a calibrated eyepiece, never from a photograph.

How chemistry is recorded

Chemistry is recorded as a reagent, a verdict and the reaction that produced it. A reagent with no reaction is recorded as negative rather than omitted, because a negative result is evidence. Verdicts are written in the vocabulary the reagent actually uses — amyloid, cyanophilic, positive, negative — and are not translated into vague words like "strong" or "weak".

How the ladder is graded

Toxicology is graded on the mechanism of harm, not on the severity of the afternoon. The four tiers separate a self-limiting gastrointestinal syndrome from an injury to liver, kidney, muscle or the central nervous system, and from a dose class with a documented lethal outcome. A tier is a statement about the category of harm; it is not a prognosis for any individual exposure.

How the site is published

The publish dates are real. Records are added on the schedule shown in the sitemap and not before, so a species that has not come due yet has no page, no entry in a list and no place in the key.

What this site is not

This site contains no foraging, cooking or edibility guidance of any kind. Records describe what a specimen is and what its chemistry does. They never describe what to do with it.

Lamella is an informational reference for microscopy and toxicology. It is not medical advice. If a mushroom has been eaten and a person is unwell, contact emergency services or a poisons centre immediately and take the remains of the meal with you.

Scope

Lamella is a personal reference work covering the fungal species whose identification depends on microscopy or on a chemical test. It is not a field guide: photographs of whole fruit bodies are deliberately absent, because a photograph of a mushroom is not evidence of what it is.

Contact: [email protected].