Fly Agaric: Identification, Detoxification and Medical Uses

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Edibility 3/5 Toxic and hallucinogenic when eaten raw but properly prepared, perfectly edible as a food with no ill effects. Top of delicious forest mushrooms, but a completely hearty, easily identifiable and enjoyable game dish. Some herbalists also use fly agaric tincture as a topical treatment for sciatica.
Determination 4/5 Confusion with red Russula species (especially with the diseased Russula emetica) possible if scales are washed. Free white gills, a continuous stem ring and a bulbous volva. Universal veil, the toadstool can be difficult to distinguish from other toadstools (including the deadly poisonous toadstool), and to the untrained eye it resembles snowballs and young species of mushrooms such as mushrooms and horse mushrooms. See my photos below for an illustration.
Distribution 5/5 Very common in its habitats in the UK, Northern Europe and most of North America
Season: July November
Habitat: mainly birch and spruce (Sitka)
Ecological function: The toadstool It is a mycorrhizal fungus that lives in close Symbiosis with associated trees. Their mycelium attracts water and minerals, which associated trees are exchanged for simple sugars.
Collector Notes: The toadstool is generally abundant and if I could express a preference I would probably appreciate it if you carried some of its spore caps, gills, through the woods in a basket. Due to its iconic beauty, it is one of the few mushrooms that non-mushroom experts admire as they could admire a beautiful flower, so it is good to leave many of them in public places for people to use. Hopefully they will spark your imagination and become a stepping stone to a wider appreciation of mushrooms!
Relationship with other mushrooms: Toadstools are a good “signal species” that tend to grow in the same places as porcini mushrooms (also known as porcini mushrooms, Boletus edulis). Sometimes abbreviated as “FL.AGS” for this reason. His relationship with penny buns appears complex and warrants further investigation. What is clear from my experience is a complex interdependence between the fly agaric, the sucker (Clitopilus prunulus) and the pepper boletus (Chalciporus piperatus) and their arboreal partners. . and the sucker next to the penny buns, suggesting that they have a fungal relationship (trade between fungi? … or parasitism? … and if so, who is parasitizing whom?) Although it’s certainly a good sign, is the toadstool less around buns, perhaps suggesting they have an omnivorous appetite… Who knows what complex battles, alliances and deals are taking place beneath our feet? I like to think of these relationships when I’m looking for food.

The fly agaric can be a bright red indicator of the presence of porcini

The edibility of the fly agaric is a somewhat controversial but highly intriguing topic, touching on cultural sensitivities, chemistry, legality and our broader understanding of what constitutes an “edible” . ” Mushroom.

There is a lot to read for a balanced view, and you should consider the following two articles before deciding if consuming fly agaric is right for you and find amanitas muscaria for sale.

On one hand:

Other than almost all guides say this mushroom is edible and tasty with no harmful effects BUT ONLY IF PROPERLY PREPARED.There is an ongoing cultural bias against drinking, as documented in this article, which also includes tips for safe preparation.

My personal opinion is that eating wild food (or any food for that matter) should take personal responsibility for what you eat. This means doing enough research to feel comfortable identifying and consuming (i.e. not just a magazine or guide and certainly not just a website!). It’s no fun eating something new without becoming 100 familiar with what it is, what it contains (natural or artificial), and how it interacts with taste and digestibility. personally.

Edibility is not black and white, it is culturally and personally defined. “Poisonous” and “Delicious” are not opposites, but are based on what I call “The Spectrum of Edibility”. Read more about it here: The Day I Ate A Deadly Plant Blog: The Spectrum of Edibility.

So, in short, I love to harvest, prepare, and eat toadstools, but that doesn’t mean you should try it anyway!

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