What ever happened to Alice after she ate the 'shrooms ......... She's been in Wonderland for a week, Isn't she ever coming back.....
A young friend of mine here in Kunming, Yunnan Province is now recovering from mushroom poisoning. He spent a few days in hospital and then a week of outpatient treatments in a hyperbaric chamber. He looked iffy to me when I saw him in the hospital, but now seems well recovered. This province is famous for a wide variety of edible wild mushrooms, but mis-identification in the field is a problem because of similar appearances. He got dosed at a restaurant. I have had some excellent dinners at the "Yunnan King of Mushrooms" restaurant, but one is always putting implicit faith is the people doing the picking. I guess there are more than 50 wild species eaten locally here; some of them endemic. Also, about a month ago in Science magazine, news of a species linked to several hundred sudden cardiac deaths in asymptomatic peoeple in the province. That may be linked to a unique polypeptide in the 'shroom, or because it is an amazing barium bio-concentrator. Research continues at the Kunming Institute of Botany, just up the road. As far as Switzerland, I don't buy it. An excerpt from this website: the Puffball, Poisonous Mushrooms "In a two-year study of mushroom poisonings in Switzerland, at least 19 cases were reported to have been from muscarine poisoning."
Humungous fungus: world's largest organism? Thursday, 10 April 2003 The discovery of the world's largest fungus - up to 8,500 years old and carperting nearly 10 square kilometres of forest floor - has raised questions about what constitutes an individual organism. A study of a tree-killing fungus in rugged northeast Oregon, USA, found that a single individual covered an area equivalent to about 1,600 football fields, according to a report in the current issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research. The fungus is the most outstanding known individual of the Armillaria ostoyae species, which grows in high-latitude northern hemisphere forests and causes large production losses due to root disease. It lives in the soil and spreads mainly along tree roots by shoestring-like threads called rhizomorphs. Apart from dead and dying trees, its only surface evidence are its fruiting bodies, known commonly as honey mushrooms. More.
I read that article and I'm glad you mentioned it. A neat story of where solid science and a little education can save a great many lives.
Lest a wrong impression be given, the Puffball is generally considered safe to eat. Calvatia, Calbovista, Lycoperdon Puffballs come in many sizes, some as small as a marble and some as large as a basketball. The name "puffball" is used here to refer to three genera of fungi, Calvatia, Calbovista, and Lycoperdon. Their surfaces may be smooth, covered with small or large warts, or ornamented with spikes. Puffballs are usually white and round, and are attached to the ground with little or no apparent stem. Most puffballs are safe to eat, although rare reactions have been reported. Assuming you have obtained reliable puffballs, you should still follow these steps before eating them: They must be all-white inside. Any shade of yellow or purple makes them inedible or upsetting. When cut, they must have a uniform internal consistency. The external appearance of immature Amanita species is similar to puffballs. However, the cap and gills of these unexpanded mushrooms become apparent when the egg-shaped fungi are cut in half. The Amanita genus includes the most poisonous species of mushrooms. More, including recipes. The misleadingly titled earlier cite, the Puffball, Poisonous Mushrooms, is an article about poisonous mushrooms in the publication, The Puffball, the newsletter of the Willamette Valley Mushroom Society.
