Death In The Woods

I’ve mentioned before that at this time of the year I regularly see crops of mushrooms in the woods. Today’s Guardian has an article by Giorgio Locatelli extolling the delights of gathering, cooking and eating wild mushrooms. Trouble is, I don’t feel confident enough to be able to identify them, even though I have illustrated guides on my bookshelves. Knowing my luck, I’d probably pick poisonous varieties. I mean, when it’s something like the Fly Agaric mushroom (see below), then it’s easy to identify and obvious what it is. But how about Amanita virosa – also known as the Destroying Angel? It looks so innocent. Richard Eshelman thought he knew his mushrooms. Read about what happened to him here.  

 

 

The Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) mushroom – poisonous and obvious