WOODLAND COCKTAIL OF INTOXICATING, POISONOUS CHEMICALS

IT HAS been a poor year for our countryside plants and animals, with
the exception, perhaps, of the fungi of woods and waste places which
are now springing up like, well, mushrooms. There are 7,000 different
kinds of those non-flowering plants in Britain, yet anyone who can
identify a couple of dozen with certainty is regarded as something of
an expert.

One species which everyone does recognise is the peculiarly named Fly
Agaric, probably because of primary school indoctrination when every
wall-chart gave the impression that this red, white-spotted toadstool
was the only one that existed.

Such is juvenile conditioning that I still approach it in the wild
expecting to see it surrounded by squirrels, butterflies and a few
little hominids dressed in translucent or green tights.

The flesh of the fungus crushed in milk has a stupefying effect on
many insects and, in particular, kills flies very effectively. It is
still used for this purpose today in some part of the continent,
although various sugary liquids usually replace milk of the original
recipe.

I remember tying to check whether the treatment really did work;
however, the results were inconclusive. There were certainly dead
flies lying around the receptacle which held the repulsive mixture,
but there were just as many buzzing around and apparently thriving on
it.

In its early stages, the cap of Fly Agaric looks like a little round
button and is enclosed in a white membrane known as a veil. As it
grows, the covering is ruptured and pieces of the broken membrane
shrivel up and are left sticking to the cap. With further expansion
the white patches are pushed outwards to make a pleasing circular
pattern on the red background.

Unfortunately the remnants are washed off in heavy rain and, given our
prevalent September weather, the fungus is not at its most attractive
for long.

Fly Agaric is a cocktail of intoxicating and poisonous chemicals and
it has an unpredictable and frequently unpleasant effect on humans if
consumed. Nevertheless, it has been used as a hallucinogen by various
people over the centuries. The Vikings, for instance, ate Fly Agaric
before going into battle.

The hallucinogenic substances are concentrated in or just below the
outer skin, and out of interest, I have nibbled small pieces of the
flesh at various times. The fungus is classified as poisonous but not
deadly, and this rather nice distinction is not quite reassuring
enough for me to investigate at any greater length. The effects become
apparent just over half an hour after ingestion, but I always seem to
remain my usual pleasant and likeable self.

Fly Agaric is easily recognised and unlikely to be mistaken for.
anything edible, but some of its relatives are much more harmful and
more likely to be identified wrongly. Some have splendid names, like
Destroying Angel and Death Cap, and, for the most part the names are
appropriate as well as picturesque.

It is worth noting too, that the "magic mushrooms" prized by young
people searching for a cheap hallucinogenic trip are very similar to
others which contain the same poison as Fly Agaric. There are only one
or two deaths each year attributed to eating wild fungi, however,
sampling them at random is not a practice to be recommended.

No British animals, other than slugs and snails, appear to eat Fly
Agaric, other than as a tentative experiment, but continental reindeer
have been known to seek it out. Afterwards, they exhibit all the
symptoms of having had an entertaining evening.

Apparently, the more harmful components of Fly Agaric are altered or
eliminated in their progress through the reindeer's digestive system,
and the urine of the animals which lunched on it made a powerful
intoxicating drink for previous generations of Laplanders. Personally,
I have always felt that whoever made this remarkable discovery was
surely brave enough not to need artificial stimulants in the first
place.

People interested in collecting fungi for the table would probably be
content if they could simply distinguish between poisonous and edible
species, but the guidelines held out to them are little more than
folklore and superstition. Currently fashionable beliefs are that
fungi which can be easily peeled, have a ring on the stem or change
colour when broken are safe to eat. There are far too many exceptions
to such "rules" for them to be anything but misleading.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry