Deadly duo - Amanita muscaria

This photo was taken on 6 August 2016, when I went on a mushroom foray at Rod Handfield's acreage. Though this was a fungi day (well, morning), we also came across a few wildflower species, too.

I found the whole day physically and mentally exhausting (a mix of excitement and stress). It was a great day, too, thanks to friend, Sandy! She very kindly picked me up around 8:15 am and we drove SW of the city and SW of Millarville to Rod Handfield's acreage. For a number of years, this has been one of my favourite places to explore, as Rod's forest tends to be full of all sorts of beautiful treasures. It is one of the two best places that I know for mushrooms, the other being Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. This year turned out after all to be great for fungi, thanks to all the endless, torrential rain we had in the summer. This year has had such weird weather - a very mild, dry winter, a spring that was as dry and hot as a summer, and then a wet, thundery summer. Winter paid the city a visit all Thanksgiving weekend (about a week ago), but now we are back to more sunshine and somewhat warmer temperatures.

We met up with a group of other interested people, most of whom we didn't know, and we searched the land for fungi. Right at the start, I was telling Sandy that on the last visit there (or one of the last), maybe four years ago (17 August 2010, so six years ago - how time flies!), we had seen a beautiful Amanita muscaria / Fly agaric mushroom growing just a few feet from the start of the hike. Sure enough, there were several growing in exactly the same spot on this day, which was so exciting. Later in the walk, we saw two other patches of absolute beauties of this hallucinogenic, poisonous species, including ones that were at a younger stage, as seen in this photo. The rain was spitting during our walk, and the forest was so dark, but amazingly, some of my photos came out well enough - this one could have been quite a bit sharper. Thanks so much, Karel, for organizing and leading this trip and for sharing your knowledge with us!

"A large conspicuous mushroom, Amanita muscaria is generally common and numerous where it grows, and is often found in groups with basidiocarps in all stages of development. Fly agaric fruiting bodies emerge from the soil looking like a white egg, covered in the white warty material of the universal veil... Amanita muscaria poisoning occurs in either young children or people ingesting it to have a hallucinogenic experience... A fatal dose has been calculated at an amount of 15 caps. Deaths from this fungus A. muscaria have been reported in historical journal articles and newspaper reports. However, with modern medical treatment a fatal outcome because of the poison of this mushroom would be extremely rare."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria

I have to admit that I always find a walk like this rather frustrating. It doesn't work too well when you have people who are photographers and people who are interested in picking mushrooms to eat : ) The latter tend to always be ahead and by the time you catch up to them, you can't see what has already quickly been picked and of course it is usually difficult or impossible to get a photo. This was private land and some of us know the owner, Rod Handfield. In places like the national or provincial parks, one is not allowed to remove anything from the area - but some people still do. You see people with large baskets full of mushrooms picked for cooking! This is especially an east European 'thing'. They have grown up with this tradition and seem to know which fungi are edible or not. Some poisonous mushrooms can look very similar to edible ones, which is why the warning is to never, ever eat any kind of fungus unless you are an expert! As our local Naturalist always says: "All fungi are edible, some only once!"

Sandy and I left the group around lunchtime, to go looking at vehicles at one of the dealerships. In the last year and a half, I had to put far too much money into repairs for my poor old 17+ year old car and finally, I knew that I had no choice but to replace it. After a three-week wait for my new car to arrive, I was finally able to pick it up about six weeks ago. A huge learning curve when going from a 1999 car to a 2016 vehicle, but I am so thankful to have reliable transportation!