Also called the “fly agaric” mushroom, this is one of the most famous mushrooms in the world, probably because of its distinct (and beautiful!) bright red cap with lovely white warts, and because it is alleged to have some kind of psychoactive properties. It is, in any event, poisonous.

I was a member of the Mycological Society of San Francisco for a while (until I was forbidden by my allergist to get near any fungi). I became interested in mushrooms when I was at a friend’s country house in upstate New York, and we woke up and found a Calvatia gigantea outside on the lawn — two feet across!– that hadn’t been there the day before. We rushed out to get a mushroom book, and found that they were edible, so we sliced it up and cooked it like it was eggplant, and thus began my hobby. Mushrooms are interesting because they have not been studied exhaustively, and mycology is one of the fields in which it is still possible to make significant new discoveries. Why have they been neglected? Maybe because they have a Bad Reputation, since they’re often poisonous, grow in the dark, and feed off of decay.

The amanita above is from tonx, and a brief look around Flickr reveals a whole bunch of people who are likewise mad about mushrooms, including Niko, Hiwelt, darin marshall, Dimilinchen (Pilze, s/he calls them), Hurleygurley, who has found this fascinating pink mystery fungus, Bistrosavage…and of course all the members of the Fungi, Fungus and Mushroom groups — which are going to have to battle it out for ascendancy. :)

I just found another beautiful photoset of Fungi and Slime Molds by Maker I and another one by quas. Be sure to check out the Bird’s Nest mushrooms.