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

[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.