An Edible Poisonous Mushroom

Less than 1% of all fungi in the world are actually poisonous, but that stereotypical red one with white spots is one not to be meddled with, even in Maine. On its own, the genus, Amanita, is responsible for roughly 95% of  all mushroom poisonings. Even though not all of the 600 species found within this genus are capable of killing a person, and some are actually perfectly safe to eat, many share the characteristics of a red or orange cap with white spots, with only subtle differences between them. Therefore, many around the world risk misidentifying a poisonous species of mushroom for one to cook up and put on the dinner table when they go out hunting for the edible amanita mushrooms. 

On one of the wilderness trips I was leading, I found a large Amanita mushroom living beneath a tree at the center of my campsite. I am not good enough with fungi to identify this specimen to species, but if I had a chance to guess, I would say it was the psychoactive and eventually poisonous Amanita muscaria. 

This mushroom is native to the Northern Hemisphere, in the temperate and boreal regions, and since being accidentally introduced elsewhere, has become common in the Southern Hemisphere as a symbionts to introduced pine trees. 

Muscaria has many interesting entheogenic and culinary histories that come from all over the world. From being sold here in North America as a food source to being deeply imbedded in the cultural identities of Lithuanians, Vikings and communities in the far East, muscaria has a long history relating both to its toxicity and its edibility.

In places where the mushroom is eaten, it is first boiled in several waters to leach out the water soluble muscimol and then pickled or turned into a sauce. A mushroom guide may label it as edible, but not without a good parboil beforehand, to avoid the unreliable effects of its formidable neurotoxins.