Off topic...Guess the mushroom.

[Bill S]

Hi Zonda.
What book would you recommend for a beginner in fungology. I have looked at several and can't decide.

Misha

Mushrooms by Roger Phillips 2006 edition £18.99 at any good bookshop.

Seconded. And if edible mushrooms are of interest the River Cottage handbook someone else mentioned is an excellent guide to the edible species as well as being an entertaining read. Also the Patrick Harding book How to identify edible mushrooms is good too.

Bill

[Mikhail]

Thanks for the recommendation, Zonda and Bill.

Misha

[Piers]

Zonda,

I just spent a while looking through your fungi pictures (I was terribly bored ) and they really are extremely good! Well they are to my untrained eyes anyway, really lovely. they've made me want to go out on foray this weekend! Why has your interest in fungi waned do you think?

Felix.

Ps: I also glanced at your butterfly pics; you have a stunning photograph of a gatekeeper ab. excessa; can I ask where you took the photograph? the chances are that it shows up year after year in the same location and the population could throw out quite extreme forms every now and again. Send me a PM if you don't want to broadcast it, or alternatively tell me to ****** off should you feel so inclined.

[Zonda]

Felix,,,,why should i be telling you to ****** off. The ' gatekeeper' was probably photographed in my back garden. Are you having doubts about the identity of the butterfly pictured in my albums. I haven't worked out the PM thing yet. I could do with some help in locating a Comma tho. I'll see you next season at Alners gorse for the BH's.

[Gruditch]

Ah, I was going to PM Zonda, as I wanted to photograph some Fly Agaric. So where's the best place in the New Forrest Zonda.


Gruditch

[Zonda]

With Birch.

[Gruditch]

I know that.

Gruditch

[Zonda]

Lol....not knowing the New Forest very well, i don't know the best spots. Sorry i'm a Dorset man. Try waiting till later in the month.

[Gruditch]

Lot of use you are, We do know of a few spots, but never find them in good condition, Hippie's having a nibble I think.


Gruditch

[Zonda]

Grud said;

Lot of use you are, We do know of a few spots, but never find them in good condition, Hippie's having a nibble I think.

Don't get tempted, stick to the booze.

[Bill S]

Lot of use you are, We do know of a few spots, but never find them in good condition, Hippie's having a nibble I think.


Gruditch

I know some spots for these, one about 400 m from my house, others in the New Forest. I can PM you when I spot them.

Bill

[Gruditch]

Cheers Bill, look forward to hearing from you.

Gruditch

[Trev Sawyer]

Those nasty people who think Father Christmas is not real have suggested that the person who dreamed him up may have been suffering from hallucinations caused by this mushroom... The fact that the Fly Agaric is red with white spots being the explanation for his red cloak and white buttons. Reindeer are known to feed on these mushrooms (apparently they really like them!) and in some places people drink the reindeers' urine to get a second-hand "high".
But that stuff can't possibly be right can it, 'cos I've actually seen Santa

Trev

[Piers]

I'll keep my eyes peeled too. Some years they seem to turn up in better numbers than others. One year there were loads lining the Wessex Way to Bournemouth.
..!

Felix,,,,why should i be telling you to ****** off. The ' gatekeeper' was probably photographed in my back garden. Are you having doubts about the identity of the butterfly pictured in my albums. I haven't worked out the PM thing yet. I could do with some help in locating a Comma tho. I'll see you next season at Alners gorse for the BH's.

Probably??? Zonda I'm worried about your record keeping!!

Lot of use you are,

Quite.

Don't get tempted, stick to the booze.

I have heard that it's quite an experience..!

[Piers]

Those nasty people who think Father Christmas is not real have suggested that the person who dreamed him up may have been suffering from hallucinations caused by this mushroom... The fact that the Fly Agaric is red with white spots being the explanation for his red cloak and white buttons. Reindeer are known to feed on these mushrooms (apparently they really like them!) and in some places people drink the reindeers' urine to get a second-hand "high".
But that stuff can't possibly be right can it, 'cos I've actually seen Santa

Trev

Not so sure about that one Trev, it was only recently that Santa adopted his red garb. In the 19th C he was usually depicted as a fairly svelt character wearing rather stately blue or sometimes a more pagan green.

The red robes turned up in the 1860s attributed to an American cartoonist called Thomas Nast. Nast was the first to portray Santa as a tubby old git with a white beard, voluptuous ermine trimmed red jimmy-jams, and the familiar black wellies.

A popular urban myth is that Coca Clola invented the red-robed image of Santa, although they did use Nast's images in the 1930's for their Christmas adverts; however, by that time (thanks to Nast) people were already used to seeing Santa dressed in red.

Of course, it could be that Nast was an agaric adict!!

Felix.
Ps. I don't know about you but I'd already have to be pretty high before I thought that drinking deer pee was a great idea..

[Zonda]

It's true, the Laps do it. The trouble with imbibing on hallucinogenic wild fungi is that as with a lot of drugs they affect different folks in different ways. Although the effects may be fairly pleasant, and pleasingly psychedelic, while sitting in your living room in your favourite arm chair. Research shows that the effects of these ingestions can recur unannounced, weeks, or even months later. This can be quite an interesting experience if you happen to be over taking the jumped up Nissan driver, who had previously cut you up, and you are engaged in a death chase in the fast lane of the M5.

[Lee Hurrell]

It's true, the Laps do it. The trouble with imbibing on hallucinogenic wild fungi is that as with a lot of drugs they affect different folks in different ways. Although the effects may be fairly pleasant, and pleasingly psychedelic, while sitting in your living room in your favourite arm chair. Research shows that the effects of these ingestions can recur unannounced, weeks, or even months later. This can be quite an interesting experience if you happen to be over taking the jumped up Nissan driver, who had previously cut you up, and you are engaged in a death chase in the fast lane of the M5.

Sounds like first hand experience Zonda...

Anyway, in celebration of you returning, here's a couple for you to ID from the wooded banks of Lake Wimbleball in Somerset, taken today.

Cheers

Lee

[Bill S]

First could be Glistening Inkcap? no idea on the second.

Bill

[Zonda]

Sounds like first hand experience Zonda...

Nah Lee,,,i'm not a wee drinker. To try and id your pics... The first might be a Coprinus species, and the second is a bracket fungus. Unfortunately there is a lot more to fungus identification than i can do from a photograph. Guessing is not good, if you want to eat something, or indeed just to know what it is. I need to smell it, taste it (perhaps), and see a specimen in three stages of growth (would be helpful), after that i might still be stumped, in which case i shall need a mycologist with a microscope. Then i might stand half a chance. Further,,,even when i have a good mycologist and a microscope, he will only be able to tell me about spore sizes, and spore characteristics. Then,,, to be absolutely certain, i shall have to go to a geneticist, in a laboratory for my final confirmation. Taxonomy, or naming the life around us, is getting to be a bit tedious these days. PS,,, butterflies are less hassle, but this aberration thing could get complicated. So, 'Might be a Coprinus, and 'This is a bracket' are all i'm commiting to.

[Zonda]

I used to contribute to Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Luridiformis
I have instigated lots of species articles on the site, notably Amanita echinocephala, and lots of articles on the Russula genus. This is however, of little import on a butterfly site. My apologies.