magpie

I'm pretty shocked by how much my mental health has tanked since my dog passed away. I knew losing her would wreck me, but I didn't realise how much she made my life worth living.

Do you find they more or less hold shape when cooked? I've thought about trying these but man, if the texture doesn't hit then nothing else matters for me.

That's great to hear, a person could do a lot of damage in a week of collecting. Have you considered volunteering to validate sequences for the mycoblitzes? I keep meaning to sit down and figure it out, but I'm always run off my feet this time of year.

Sending it off through an ongoing, year-long MycoMap project in my province.

I also participate in the continental mycoblitzes through the same lab (Mycota), those are NA-wide but limited to 10 submissions over the course of a week. They do them about 3 times per year, summer, fall, winter.

Thanks! I appreciate you doing that.

Thanks! I think you're right, I've heard that term many times but I've never actually seen a photo example.

I'm in the central interior of BC, Canada. I gave up trying to ID Russulas a long time ago but I always love to see them out in full force. If I had found this just a week later it definitely would have been sent in for sequencing for MycoMapBC

Here are my notes from iNat: Coniferous habitat; scent not distinct; taste mild, very slight tingle; cap surface a deep wine-purple, slightly frosted look to it; cap peeling half-way to two-thirds of the way to centre

I would maybe start saying 'agarics' instead to prevent confusion.

If you are using an app that gives you a little AI blurb the language/tone it uses makes it sound like there can be no mistake. For some people that's all they need. Last week I saw someone post about how grok had "definitively" ID'd this person's mushroom as Pluteus cervinus from one photo. It was very clearly Hypholoma fasciculare.

Yeah, I can do all that but I draw the line at larvae, as dumb as that sounds. Irrational fear, but I'm getting better haha

Definitely worth the risk for me, I can't improve my skills let alone ID a mushroom if I don't pick it up and get a good look. If you aren't comfortable with it that's fine but telling people to just not touch mushrooms doesn't help anyone because no one has ever died or become sick from touching a mushroom.

I saw a post from a vet today on one of the ID forums, a dog had eaten a mushroom and was very ill. Preliminary ID was A. phalloides. Absolutely heartbreaking, I'd never get over that.