OK, so what is this mushroom/toadstool?


Mushroom 7 by hairydalek, on Flickr

pleurotus cornucopiae. is the closest I can come up with. If its important do a spore print and look at the spores under a microscope.
Spore print is pale lilac and the spores are subcylindrical 8-11x3.5-5 microns.

source Mushrooms and other fungi of Britain and Europe by Roger Phillips.

I am not happy with that identification though.

I'd say it's pretty important if he plans to eat them. In France you can just take them to a local chemist for identification, but I expect they'd look at you weird if you tried that in Boots.

If it is an Oyster mushroom, they're supposed to be tasty and nutritious according to my 20 second Google.

Not planning on eating them - not where they are growing anyway. Just wondering what they were, thanks.

I can help in August after I've been to Finland. I can run the photo by my GF's gran, mushroom picking is still a yearly pastime over there and she knows her stuff.

She's let down a bit by her eyesight though so I generally wait until others have eaten them before I give them a go.

I am a fairly keen edible fungi hunter :0 identification is always tricky and I tend to stick to ones I know well in my local area for obvious reasons. The book I mention above is very good and has excellent illustrations (photos) and good guide to identifying different types. Having said that I couldn't be certain about the picture above and more work would be required to get a better idea.