urbpan: (dandelion)
urbpan ([personal profile] urbpan) wrote2013-06-25 10:40 am

In the realm of the Mushroom People

The word "epic" is overused on the internet, but this thread that I started on the FUNGI magazine Facbook page regarding the identification of this mushroom:

 photo amanita_zpsda0c4b8e.jpg

...has become quite epic. If you can plow through the jargon and scientific gibberish, it's a good illustration of the difficulty and contentiousness of mushroom identification. My mushrooms got settled pretty quickly as (probably) Amanita flavorubescens but the peanut gallery made some suggestions that required untangling.

Let me know if the thread is visible to you.

[identity profile] lyonesse.livejournal.com 2013-06-25 02:50 pm (UTC)(link)
...and this is the long answer to why we don't try to identify mushrooms via photographs, right?

[identity profile] urbpan.livejournal.com 2013-06-25 03:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I like to say, "Well it could be..." and then name one poisonous mushroom and one edible mushroom.

[identity profile] lyonesse.livejournal.com 2013-06-25 03:24 pm (UTC)(link)
in this case? you could cover both by suggesting fly agaric ;)