I'm thinking about joining the Wisconsin Mycological Society, but I'm afraid that it will seal my fate as a nerd. Check out the first sentence of their little informational brochure: The WMS is primarily an amateur organization dedicated to the study and enjoyment of wild mushrooms and other fungi. See what I mean? It's just that nerdy. Next I'll be wearing one of the t-shirts I saw at the mushrooming trip: I (heart) fungi.
It is great to be able to notice and even identify these moist and squishy forest creatures, though. I was coming out of Walgreens the other day and saw something sticking out of the woodchip landscaped parking lot barrier area. When I looked carefully, I saw it was a mushroom--a shaggy mane. According to the Guide to Fungi booklet that I got at the mushrooming trip, its latin name is Coprinus comatus. Description: One of the distinctive "inky-cap" mushrooms whose gills and flesh darken and dissolve into an inky-black mess. Before this happens, however, it's an especially beautiful and tasty mushroom with shaggy upturned scales. Right there in the parking lot.
Now I'm back to the brochure: WMS members are mainly interested in learning how to collect and identify wild edible and poisonous mushrooms and their relatives. This is the extreme sport aspect of mushrooming. You eat a poisonous mushroom and either live to tell the tale, or don't. What a way to go.
1 comment:
Once I read a guide on how to test if something is poisonous, like if you're trapped in the wilderness or something. It can take up to like eight hours to test it because you have to have an empty stomach and then you have to make yourself throw up a ton of times and it seemed very inconvenient. I think I'd rather just eat bark or something.
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