Sunday, July 22, 2007

Fungus Amongus

The local historical society is doing surveys of all the old cemeteries here in Roswell and yesterday madam called me down to the old Methodist cemetery where they were working. She said I wouldn't believe the variety of mushrooms that were growing in and around the tombstones. I grabbed the camera and she was right. I spent a couple of hours and took over a hundred pictures of the different types that were present. The rain over the last week must have been the trigger for the explosion.
The top one is Ceasar's Amanita I think and is edible. However it is very similar to the Fly Amanita which is poisonous and I am not an expert. They are pretty though. Next down I think is a Strangulated Amanitopsis which is also supposed to be edible...again I am not expert enough to try it. Next down is what I think is another Amanita called the Blusher which is also supposed be very edible. Thing is the Amanita family is also the family of the Destroying Angel and the Death Cap which are the cause of about 90% of all mushroom poisonings and it is probably wise to avoid all the members of the clan. Finally, at the bottom is an unknown but very pretty little fellow. This is only a very small sample of the variety of fungi present. I was amazing.


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