Mushrooms and other poisonous and non-poisonous things.

[urbpan]

Extremely weird advice on how to identify edible vs. poisonous mushrooms, from a culture that is neither mycophobic nor especially mycophilic, to my knowledge. Interesting article, I do not endorse it. There are no shortcuts to knowing what you are doing.

More beautiful than purple loosestrife, more toxic than a cane toad, an invasive species from the Caribbean all the way up to the coast of Massachusetts (gulp!)

The death cap mushroom. A non-native (to North America) mushroom species with genetically distinct populations in California, New York and New Jersey, Newton Massachusetts (really? so localized) and New Hampshire. Apparently it has a knack for colonizing locations named "new" something.

Identify trees like a birder. From a distance, by color, in springtime.

Comments

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

We have Lionfish and Deathcaps. Clearly, sending them your way is our revenge for the Cane Toad *g*

btw Cane Toad news- Zoologists here have successfully taught young Chuditch (aka Quoll)to avoid Cane Toads in the wild by feeding them small portions of cane toad flesh soaked in an emetic. Makes them puke like champions, and they make the connection that eating Cane Toad=Bad. As Chuditch have been decimated by the batrachian bastards, this is great news. They're going to try it on Goannas and Blue-Tongue skinks next...

btw again- I still think toads are cute. Just not that one *g*

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

"Before eating your mushroom, just bite into its fleshy cap and wait for 24 hours to see any possible signs of poisoning." This works great with pretty much anything. If signs of poisoning, such as death, occur, do not eat any more of the mushroom.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

The article on identifying poisonous mushrooms is rather interesting. If you actually think forward a bit, there is some pretty sound advice in there (like not eating amanitas if you're new to this sort of thing) but the phrasing is certainly off.