Getting psyced for the mushroom season here at BCS! Please be aware that there’s no rule of thumb when coming to identification of Fungi.  Make sure you pick them with someone that know what they’re doing, and take a good field guide with you. Field guides that we use are the Collins Mushroom I.D and Richard Maybe’s “Food for free”.

It’s easy to poison yourself with Fungi, as there are many dopplegangers/look-a-likes out there.  It’s also worth remembering that the calorific value of Mushrooms in a survival context is very low. 90% of the flesh of fungi is water, so in a real life scenario you are better avoiding them for the small calorific return you’ll get rather than run the risk of poisoning.

It’s also worth learning how to take a “spore print”.

Here’s a few amazing #mycology facts.

1. Mushrooms are genetically closer to humans than #plants, having went their own #genetic way 1300 million years ago.
2.Fungi breath #oxygen and exhale #co2
3. More than 80% of the #earth under your feet is mycelium.
4. The mushroom is the tip of the iceberg, and is the fruiting body of the #mycelium. The fruiting body makes up less than 5% of the organism.
5. The largest organism on the #planet is a #honeyfungus which is 2.4 miles across!
6.The hardest #natural material in nature is #Sporopollenin which the mushrooms spores are made of.
7. Mushrooms spores can #survive the vacuum and #radiation of space.
8. Death Cap (Amanita phalloides) is one of the most #deadliestorganisms on earth. They contain #amatoxin, once ingested you’ve got no hope of recovery ????
9.#psilocybin mushrooms (magic mushrooms) are being researched by #johnhopkinsuniversity to treat #depression #addiction and many other #psychological problems.
10. Mushrooms taste good, and are #free !