Amanita Season

Day 338: Super Mario aside, you don't want to muck about with Amanitas of any sort, and they're out there right now, their emerging caps waiting to deceive you into thinking they're a different (and perhaps edible) species. Every year, I get photos from my readers asking, "Can you identify this mushroom for me?" or sometimes, "Is this one edible?" First of all, I am not going to identify a mushroom for you from a photograph unless it is one of the unmistakable "beginner" species like Shaggymanes or Chanterelles, or unless it is obviously a poisonous sort like the distinctive Amanita. In fact, if you ask me to identify a 'shroom from a photo, you're going to get my customary one-liner: there's a reason the Mycological Society used to call their annual dinner the "Survivors' Banquet." Even the most innocent-looking mushroom can be deadly, if not immediately, then somewhere down the line when your liver and kidney functionality starts to fail. Your organ tissues retain those toxins, and there's no way to clean them out. If you aren't "105 percent" sure of what you're picking, do NOT put it in your basket where it can contaminate other mushrooms. If when you get home, you discover that you picked one unidentified 'shroom accidentally and tossed it in with your delicious Chanterelles, throw out the whole damn batch! I'm tellin' you, you don't get many second chances where 'shrooms are concerned. As for you folks who like to get high on the hallucinogenics, your Darwin Award is waiting.