The curiosities and dark variant of my herbologist rewards for May! a fascinating fact is that Australian bowerbirds have been known to collect these mushrooms to decorate their bowers!
Going through photos from January. Found this stinkhorn species for the first time at the Alan Chadwick Garden at UC Santa Cruz. Me and my friends got covid during this roadtrip so we headed home as soon as I tested positive and I almost forgot I took pictures
While delectable, the parasol mushroom-seen here among pines at dusk-is a risky pick, as it can be mistaken for poisonous look-alikes such as the death cap mushroom. National Geographic (April, 2024) photo: Agorastos Papatsanis
This month's herbologist reward is the wood blewit, a foraging favourite. I'll be sending this one out (and it's facts and folklore) to all my wonderful patreons next week!
An international group of qualified mushroom identifiers who do worldwide identification in emergency cases have identified the Shroomers App as a potentially very dangerous system that could kill you if you try to use it to identify edible mushrooms. They use AI to generate almost all of their content, including their identification profiles on their app as well as their books and other materials. Not only is this unethical from a content creation standpoint, it is also extremely dangerous.
DO NOT USE APPS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES BEYOND SIMPLE CURIOSITY. A MISTAKE WHEN IDENTIFYING AN EDIBLE COULD COST YOU YOUR LIFE. DO NOT EAT ANY FORAGED MUSHROOM YOU CANNOT IDENTIFY YOURSELF BY SIGHT OR HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED IN PERSON BY SOMEONE WHO CAN.
ONLY BUY BOOKS FROM REPUTABLE SOURCES AND AT THIS POINT THAT MEANS ASKING EXPERIENCED PEOPLE WHAT BOOKS THEY USE.
Mushrooms are fun, amazing organisms. Enjoy safely.