Red

Another shot of this beautiful red mushroom, taken on 6th August at the Bentz Lake Natural Area. This glorious mushroom came as a total surprise - and made my day!

"Russula emetica, commonly known as The Sickener, is a basidiomycete mushroom of the genus Russula, one of many species with a predominantly red-coloured cap and white gills and stalk. It gets its common name from its inedibility, as it causes vomiting and diarrhea when consumed. It has an extremely peppery taste, which is said partly to disappear on cooking, along with its toxicity, though eating it is not recommended. Mixing one emetica with otherwise edible red Russula will ruin the whole meal, and it is a common reason some do not pick any Russula-species." From Wikipedia.

Not sure what happened to Flickr a bit earlier this evening - nothing but blank, white pages! I know I'm not the only one who had that.