Amanita phalloides/Death Cap/ Grøn Fluesvamp

Amanita phalloides, stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk

Amanita phalloides/ Death Cap ( Danish: Grøn fluesvamp) 
The most poisonous fungus in the Danish flora.

Characteristics:  Please read also the specified description of Amaniata phalloides at wikipedia, which also tells you about the various habitats of the fungus.

Short Description: Amanita phalloides, the Death Cap (Danish: Grøn Fluesvamp) is Danmark's most common and  most poisonous fluesvamp *. It grows in deciduous forests in a good soil, often below beech and oak. The cap is egg-shaped while the mushroom is young, later half round and at last spread and 6-12 cm broad. The outer holster stays back as a sheath at the swollen base of the 10-12 cm long stem. The colour of the cap varies from pale-yellow to olive-green, blue-green or grey-brown. The lamellas are white or yellow-white, the smell is sweet, honey-like,  in old fungis the smell is unpleasant.


It's now September. This is the time of the autumn and the time of gathering edible mushrooms. There are so many various types of mushrooms in the forest, some are edible and delicious, like the chanterelles and the champignons, others are poisonous or deadly poisonous like the Amanitas. It can be a risky business to be a mushroom hunter. Each year mushroom pickers confuse edible mushrooms with their poisonous relatives, and the Amanita phalloides, The Death Cap,  is highest in these statistics.

young Death Cap (Google)

Death Cap (Google)

But the air is cooler, the sky is clear and blue, the soil in the forest has this special scent of autumn - and now it's time for a lovely day in the September forest. People bring their mushroom-books, but this is not always enough. Even the experienced musthroom gatherers may be in doubt from time to time. And the unexperienced are often in uncharted territory. The poisonous Amanita virosa, called the European Destroying Angel, looks like young specimens of champignons, and the Amanita phalloides, the Death Cap, which is even more poisonous, looks like the edible Volvariella volvacea, called Paddy Straw mushroom, from the Asian kitchen, and the confusion between those two mushrooms has lead to fatal intoxications, also in Denmark. The Death Cap does not grow in Southeast Asia. Fatal intoxications have occurred because people with traditions from Southeast Asia have gathered the Death Cap here, believing it was the edible Paddy Straw mushroom from their homeland.

NB:
The most sold edible mushroom in Thailand is the Volvariella volvacea, the Paddy Straw mushroom, which looks like the Death Cap in the Danish forests - so it is necessary to be utmost cautious when you are gathering mushrooms in Denmark if you come from Southeast Asia. .



* fluesvamp: flue = fly. The Danish peasants used in the old times a porridge made from fluesvamp to smear on the walls of the stable in order to kill the flies.

Source: Biokemisk Forening, Danmarks fugle og natur, Felthåndbogen.

Come on, King Winter!

My buy: Shiitake mushrooms, ginger and seaweed.

Coming close to winter I suddenly wish to be very healthy! Is this because I think I can fight winter? Maybe people also felt that in the old days, when summer ended, and when autumn was a preparation for the winter season. Foods had to be stored, corn, fish, meat, vegetables - they knew how to handle this. I know nothing about salting fish, drying meat, conserving vegetables - I just buy my way through winter.
But I'll have to do something. So I have been looking for healthy things! Someone told me about some new scientific research. Mushrooms have just been an addition to my meals before, but they are much more healthy than considered, especially the shiitake mushrooms. It was common to use shiitake mushrooms for medicine in China for thousands of years, but China was always clever about such things.

New scientific research shows that Shiitake mushrooms strengthen the immune system - they even say dramatically. Well, who could not be in the need of strengthening the immune system, i.e. lots of people have got allergy, and a cure is difficult to find. A compound in these mushrooms, lentinan, has the power to improve the immune system and help protect it from disease - and in some cases it is effective of fighting off sickness. This lentinan is also said to destroy cancer cells in the body.

Another compound, eritadenine, can improve the health of the heart. The shiitake mushrooms can lower the cholesterol like garlic and many other things can do. There is an extremely high content of antioxidants, which of course gives benefits too. What is most fantastic is that the scientists have discovered that the shiitake mushrooms can improve the situation considerably for people suffering from aids. This sounds incredible, but I think this must be the most important discovery.

But since I wish to improve my immune system, because I've got some allergy - and because it is always good to prevent other nasty things, then I bought some shiitake mushrooms yesterday and fried them for my meal. I had fish, but this suited okay. They do not taste "too much". A very neutral taste. I'm a single girl, so I divided the portion in two, and I'll try to use them in an omelet today!
If they are as healthy as they say and improve the health in general, then I'll add them to my food this winter - together with other healthy things, for I'm a bit of a hypochondriac! Maybe more than a bit........

I'll look out for ginger and seaweed next!
photo 18.10.2010:gb

Mushrooms in September

September is the time for gathering mushrooms in Løvenholm forest.......





most of the mushrooms are not for dinner, only for good looks....
you might create a fine decoration upon moss


.... in the deep shadow of the forest........ at least I know
that the fungis to the left is a Panter-cap (Amanita pantherina)


and here was a sweet little coal tit.....

further description is on blog Flora and Fauna if you like...........


The landscape with large fields is typical for an area with manors.......


... and here are two of them, Løvenholm and Gammel Estrup....
(Løvenholm, description in blog: Church and Manor in Denmark)


...a fine avenue at the manor and an old horse-box in the field.......



..a village house and a church.........


one of few old mills and the new Vestas windmills
in the late afternoon on the last stop back home.......
(click to enlarge small photos)


September in Løvenholm forest: grethe bachmann