Fly Agaric

[Motorbike Man]

Hi Folks,

While out on a few wanders over the last few weeks or so, I can't help but notice the seeming explosion in the amount of Fly Agaric all over the place. I've seen them every where, even down the sides of dual carriageways. Here's a couple I photographed

this one

and

this one

Was just wondering if it was a local thing, or if anyone else had spotted the same thing?

P.S. These were NOT photographed at the side of a dual carriage way, by the way :yikes:

 

[CLEM]

Ive seen loads of them myself over the last month,especialy down Worcester.

 

[TheViking]

The fungi of the Berserks! Viking warriors (berserks) ate this to go into a berserkerrage which made them wild and barbaric. :shock:
The downside was that they got i'll when the battle was over. That's what the stories tell, but of course we can't know what they did 1000 years ago. :biggthump

 

[Paganwolf]

funny you should say that if found a load today

Fly agaric (Amantia muscaria)
also found these

false death cap, (Amantia citrina)
The Amanita family are very dangerous and includes the Destroying angel (Amanita virosa) and Death cap (Amanita phalloides)these mushrooms can fatal to human beings and all this family should be treated with extreme caution, and not touched ,beautifull to observe potentially deadly if eaten..

 

[Tantalus]

re : TheViking

never tried em myself and i wouldnt reccomend anyone else to try them either

i understand a "death like coma" is more like the effect of this fungus tho

not something i would mess with

Tant

 

[TheViking]

It's not directly deadly toxic from what I've heard, but no: don't eat the thing.

 

[Motorbike Man]

I did know of someone who cut one up with a pocket knife to see what it was like on the inside and didn't clean his knife off properly. He used the same knife later to eat a meal and ended up tripping his little cotton socks off :yikes: for about 36 hours :roll:

 

[Paganwolf]

Could have been a fatal error :yikes: this family is well dangerous guys and should be treated with extreme caution.

 

[Motorbike Man]

Pagan Wolf posted

Could have been a fatal error

Absolutely!!!! Didn't to sound like I was tempted or anything, these things KILL was just curious about the sudden proliferation as I seem to remember them being a bit more rare that this year

 

[Paganwolf]

They are quite common in the woods which i frequent, we have milder autumn/winter weather now in the UK and the weather is shroom weather at the mo,or perhaps you have now greater bushcraft vision and are noticing them more

 

[TheViking]

As it turns out the Vikings were lucky that they didn't have to endure a lot of nasty side effects. In many parts of the world these mushrooms also contain toxins that make a person violently ill. This substance is apparently metabolized by the body while the hallucinogens are passed through the body unchanged. For that reason, some people used to drink the urine of other people (or animals) who had ingested the mushrooms, to get high without any of those nasty side effects. Some specimens contain a great deal of the chemical that makes you sick and very little of the hallucinogen. It can also be easily mistaken for Amanita pantherina or other Amanita species that are deadly poisonous. For these reasons I do NOT recommend recreational use of this mushroom and claim no responsibility if you foolishly decide to do so. (how's that for a disclaimer?)

Quote from http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/dec99.html

 

[Motorbike Man]

Pagan Wolf posted

or perhaps you have now greater bushcraft vision and are noticing them more

Of course!!!, that must be the obvious answer ):

 

[Paganwolf]

:rolmao: the bushcraft force grows within you :rolmao:

 

[Realgar]

I've seen more than usual around too.

There's an awful lot of russulas around this year too, and clouded agarics ( clitocybe somethingorother ). Is it only me that's had a bad year for edible fungi?
Relgar

 

[Ed]

Deffinatly not on the edible list.... a nice looking fungi and great photo oppertunity but best left well alone in my opion.... especially when there are other tasty edible fungi out there at this time of year :biggthump

Ed

 

[leon-1]

Right guys under no circumstances eat one of these, they are poisonous, they are hallucinogens.

The records do not show how many people that this has killed, including vikings or shaman. Since none of us are either, I would suggest that any more discussion on the edibillity of this species cease NOW.

Remember we have younger people that view this site as well and they could be influenced by what you talk about.

 

[Motorbike Man]

Sorry Boss, never intended it to be a discussion on edibility

 

[Paganwolf]

Cant see when we did :?: As i said dangerous family which will make you die! one more time :roll:

 

[PEDRO]

re : TheViking

never tried em myself and i wouldnt reccomend anyone else to try them either

i understand a "death like coma" is more like the effect of this fungus tho

not something i would mess with

Tant

YOU HAVE TO DRY THEM OUT TO GET RID OF THE BAD STUFF THEN JUST HAVE AROUND 5 GRAMS TO HAVE THAT SHAMAN FEELING
:chill:

 

[jason01]

I did know of someone who cut one up with a pocket knife to see what it was like on the inside and didn't clean his knife off properly. He used the same knife later to eat a meal and ended up tripping his little cotton socks off :yikes: for about 36 hours :roll:

You sure he wasn't pulling your leg Jon?

They are common round here too this time of year and difficult to miss, whether the vikings used them to induce berserker rages is debated by the experts, the latest thinking seems to be that they probably didn't, they're more likely to put you into a stupor than an invincible rage.

Jason