Eupatorium: Bonesets, Thoroughworts, Snakeroots/ DK: Hjortetrøst

Eupatorium purpureum, Sletterhage/photo:gb

Eupatorium is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family Asteraceae. They have from 36-60 species depending on the classification system. Most are herbaceous perrennial plants. A few are shrubs.

Most Euparium are called bonesets, thoroughworts or snakeroots. The genus is named for Mithridates Eupator, king of Pontus.

The habitat for Eupatorium is Asia, North America and Europe.











In Denmark are four species of  Eupatorium: (growing wild or cultivated:

Eupatorium purpureum, Red Hjortetrøst (introduced in DK in Middle Ages by monks)
Eupatorium cannabinum, Hamp- Hjortetrøst
Eupatorium rugosum,White Hjortetrøst (Ageratina altissima)
Eupatorium japonicum, Japansk Hjortetrøst
 
The Danish name Hjortetrøst ( meaning "consolation of the deer") refers to that people and hunters in the old days believed that a deer hit by an arrow was healed by eating the plant.

Eupatorium purpureum, wikipedia

Eupatorium purpureum, Red Hjortetrøst  is a vigourously growing  perennial with a stiff,upright growth. It is a fine garden plant. The pink flowers are gathered in small baskets, they are seen from July. The seeds sprout willingly.  It grows in the river valleys in the eastern and central USA and Canada. It  was introduced in Denmark in the Middle Ages by the monks in their kloster gardens. 

Eupatorium cannabinum, Hamp-Hjortetrøst , a perennial herb that grows on moist ground. It is wild-growing in Denmark but is also used as a garden plant. The pale red or pink flowers are seen in  July-September. The fruit is a nut. It is spread in North Africa, the Middle East, Asia Minor, Caucasia, Central Asia., Himalaya and China and in most of Europe. In Denmark it is common in the Isles and in East Jutland - or else very rare. It is overall connected to light-open and moist or wet ground with nutrient soil. It is among other places found at the banks of Gudenaa river. It is used as a garden perennial at garden ponds or along water streams and is much used in swampy areas in natural gardens.

Eupatorium cannabinum in old Danish folk medicine: It is said to contain similar healing properties as Agrimony. A decoct was recommended for liver and spleen. The plant was useful against malaria, jaundice, mange and itching. The juice was given for children's intestinal worms.Some meant it healed wounds. If a deer was hit by an arrow it was cured if it eat the plant. Hunters claimed that wounded deer eat the plant.  The flowerstalk was written in the pharmacopoeia in 1772. The plant was also mentioned as a means for horses with liver and lung disease.

Eupatorium rugosum/ Ageratina altissima, White Hjortetrøst or White Ageratina is an upright growing perennial with one or few hairy or smooth stems. The snowwhite flowers are seen in July- October . The fruits are dry nuts. It has its habitat in the northeastern USA and Canada where the plant is a part of the vegetations along forest glades and in the zone between forest and prairie . Grows wild in Denmark.

Eupatorium japonicum, is native to China, Japan and Korea. It grows wild in a few places in Denmark

Medicine

Medieval garden, wikipedia

The common names for the plants are all based on the previous usage of one species, Eupatorium perfoliatum, as an herbal medicine. The common name apparently derives from the herb's use to treat dengue fever, which was also called breakbone fever because of the pain that it caused. The name thoroughwort also comes from Eupatorium perfoliatum, and refers to the perfoliate leaves, in which the stem appears to pierce the leaf (i.e. go through, note that in older usage "thorough" was not distinguished from "through", compare for example the word thoroughfare).

Eupatorium rugosum contains some chemical connections, which are not poisonous in themselves but they change in the liver into very poisonous connections. Cows eating the plant excrete these poisonous conections in the milch, which then is deadly poisonous to humans (and the calves). The poisoning was called the milch-disease.Boneset, although poisonous to humans and grazing livestock, has been used in folk medicine for instance to excrete excess urid acid which causes gout. Caution is advised when using boneset, since it contains toxic compounds that can cause liver damage. Side effects include muscular tremors, weakness, and constipation; overdoses may be deadly.

Bjerreskov/photo GB

Eupatorium are grown as ornamental plants, in particular in Asia. Tobacco leaf curl virus is a pathogen occasionally affecting plants of this genus. The foliage is eaten by some Lepidoptera larvae, including those of Orthonama obstipata.

photo from wikipedia

photo: Hjortetrøst Sletterhage and Bjerre Skov: grethe bachmann

The first Danish Apoteks - Mummy Powder and Scorpion Oil

Danish Apotek, 1700s

Medieval pharmacy

The Danish

apotekerskilt, Tønder, foto: gb

word Apotek comes from the Greek word apothéke which means storage or repository. (English: pharmacy).
The history of the Danish apotek is linked to the common cultural history.The medieval church was encompassing, the medieval Chapters were cultural centers with tasks in administration, education, justice and disease control. Far back in time church people were engaged in medicine and many of those are known by name. Many medical and herbal books were published, but most of them are lost. The development of the apotek/pharmacy is seen in the Pharmacopoeia (= the authorized lists of the medcine which an apotek had to hold). The Pharmacopoeia of 1772 is a turning point. Although some uneffective medicine still was accepted after this time  - like the scorpion oil - the deciding principle was from now on a medical science which rested upon experience, and the old folk-remedies had to give way. The change must be seeen in connection to the interest of natural science and the new discoveries which grew up in the 1700s.

Apotekerhaven, Viborg,

Already in the 1400s were the first traces of an independent pharmacy state in Denmark. Before the permanent apoteks were established, the medicine were procured in other ways. The relict flora by the Danish klosters show the cultivation of medical herbs,  but herbs were also imported and sold in common trade. In the Hanseatic tariff lists from 1368-69 are fx mentioned cloves, sapphron, cumin, poppy oil and ginger. Although some of it was sold as spice, a big part was probably meant for medicine. The border between medicine and spice was undeterminable, also later in time. The oldest Danish apoteks/pharmacies did not look like a pharmacy of today, they were storages and sales of medicine , herbals, details and much more, fx wine. A command from king Hans in 1510 informs that his pharmacist had to send some wine for the king's use.

Viborg Bymuseum

Not until late in the 1700s a more rational production of medicine began to build upon a practical scientific experience, but it never displaced the ineffective compositions and folk remedies, which had great confidence among people, like frk. Thunes balsam (Miss Thune's balm) which uncritically was used for all kinds of diseases and small ailments.  A detailed description was printed in a medical paper in Copenhagen 18 March 1767:  "This balm is a safe healing remedy for all appropiate, wounds by fire or boiling materia , or where the skin is scraped. It also cures frost-boils in hands and feet. It cleans and heals all deep wounds either if they are chopped, cut, encountered, even fistuleuse or desperates, when it is hot injected or injected in another way."

Mortars in the serpentine stone were used in the Danish apoteks since they would supposedly jump into pieces if they came in contact with poison.

Lapis-pin, Museum, the pin in the top is the hell-stone

The primitive stage of the pharmacy and medicine is also seen in king Chr. 6's medical history.  4-5 years before his death he had an abscess on the gums, which was treated with Lapis infernalis, helvedessten (hell's stone). His valet got the dubious task to treat the king, and it went completely wrong. The stone passed down the king's throat, and the valet became so frightened that he concealed the thruth. A borax powder could have saved the situation, but the valet was so scared of the king's eventual rage that he just advised him to take laxative in order to drive out the rest of liquid from the abscess. This accident might have been a cause of the king's later sickness and death.

Mummy Powder

One of the oddest medical remedies, which was popular from the 12th to the 18th century in Europe, involved powdering the remains of the ancient dead. Mummy powder was among the first of the old medicines which the new medical science rejected. Nevertheless this strange médicament  - like the scorpion oil - was used in Denmark almost up till present. In 1866 Assens Apotek (in Denmark) sold mummy powder, and still in 1927 a German medical firm sold mummy. Asphalt - which was used by the embalming  - was higly recommended as a medicine from old times, and it was probably the confidence in this substance which was transferred to the mummy medicine. The belief in the eternal conservation of the mummy was also a part of it. People might have imagined that the embalmed body contained a substance which might secure them something like an everlasting life. In accordance to this the mummy medicine was also the part of a powder which could help against death itself. In the later folk medicine mummy was together with other substances used in a means against dropsy. At the Danish Apoteks (pharmacies) mummy was sold in the name armesynderkød ( poor sinner's meat). Several samples of the fabric have been preserved, some contains without doubt real mummy, while others probably consists of asphalt.

Mummy. Louvre

Mummy powder was obtained by raiding ancient tombs and plundering the corpses found inside. These could include the most famous mummies in history, Egyptian mummies, or other less well known corpses. Once the corpse was obtained, it would be ground down into dust. The powder could be mixed with various other substances and was prescribed to treat everything from headaches, stomach ulcers, to tumors. It could be taken orally or used as a plaster or salve. It was so popular that any apothecary carried mummy powder among its stock. Humans weren't the only beings alleged to benefit from mummy; sick hawks were thought to benefit from their own grade of mummy powder.





Scorpion-oil

Ærø Apotek, Skorpionolie, Wikipedia

         
In ancient Danish medical books is mentioned a means against the poison of the scorpion - and this is obvious a loan from the South. In ancient times medicine against the scorpion's bite was sought after in the southern countries where the poisonous insect lived. Among the recommended means were some which used the animal itself as an antidote. The scorpion played a big role for the medical science up high in time, also in Denmark.
Common scorpion oil was produced by soaking 20 scorpions in oil from 1 pound of bitter almonds.

Besides this there was a medicine like the mixed mathiols scorpion oil for internal use which was used against plague-abscesses, smallpox, fever and paralysis. About year 1800 the scorpion slipped out from the part of the recommended medicine, but it lived on in folk medicine - and the scorpion oil was still sold at the Danish apoteks. In "Den gamle By" (Museum) in Århus is kept a bottle with scorpions found at Frijsenborg Apotek (established 1842) at the village Hammel. A pharmacist at Odder Apotek says in 1961 that it might still happen that someone asks for scorpion oil.
This medicine was from ancient times connected to the astrology. The scorpion gave name to a constellation, and it must be a reflection of this connection between medicine and astrology when the medical doctores at the University of Copenhagen were made responsible for making an almanac. The astrology had also its oppponents though, one was the archbishop in Lund (1201-23) Andreas Sunesøn, who said that "the stars do not show us future events as if man was in the happy possition of the gift of reason and was dependent on a star without feeling and life." Still today 800 years later some people might remember his sensible words.








Source: Danish Archaological Magazine: Skalk, nr. 2, 1961, Sundhed til Salg, Helge Søgård. 


photo from Viborg and Tønder: grethe bachmann
other photos from wikipedia.

Alder Buckthorn / Almindelig Tørst

  Rhamnus frangula

 

















Rhamnus frangula is a bush, rarely a small tree, with a grey brown barch, oval leaves often pretty red in autumn, small whitish flowers which are hard to see, and small stone fruits, which change colour from green to red and black. It is common in light forests, mostly among oak and alder. The whole plant is poisonous. The bush can transfer kronrust, i.e. plant rust to oats. It has often been confused with bird cherry and alder.


Alder Buckthorn is also known as Arrowwood , Berry-bearing Alder, Black Alder, Black Aldertree, Black dogwood, Buckthorn , Glossy buckthorn. In spite of its name it has no thorns. It grows mostly on damp and peaty soil, near bogs, in marshes, damp moorland and open woodland. It may form part of the shrub layer in the Alderwoods of the fens and in open woodland. It is native of Europe, Central West Asia and North Africa.


NB: Barch and berries are poisonous to humans

Gunpowder
The buckthorn was of major military importance in the 15th-19th century as its wood provided the best quality charcoal for gunpowder manufacture. Both alder buckthorn and common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) were used in fabrication of gunpowder, especially powder for hunting.

The long twigs were traditionally used to make arrows as well as butchers spikes and skewers. The coppiced branches have also been used for walking sticks as well as pea and bean sticks. Along with willow and split alder they have also found use for cane seating and basket work.

 
















Dyeing:

The inner barch dye yellow like saffron, the berries are used for dyeing green in 1686, the barch dyes the wool yellow, the berries dye green, dried barch softened in beech ash lye gives the wool a madder-red colour, green berries make the wool yellow, ripe berries dye greyish, with salpeter blue, with vinegar violet and with bismuth green; if bricks were burnt together with the wood they grow bluish. The barch gives a bronze yellow dye, which after a handling with potash turns into a brick red.

Folk Medicine:
In the Middle Ages a juice was made which could drive out all kinds of bad fluids as well as all other filthiness from the bowels, but since the barch has a very drastic effect (  poisonous) the juice had to be added caraway, anise, cardamom or cinnamon. Juice from the inner yellow barch had a strong laxative effect; the barch cooked with butter or crushed with apples was put on scabies; tea from the innerbarch was used against rash, jaundice and ague(malaria).

The barch was stated in Dansk Farmakopé in 1772, the fresh barch and the fruits were used as an emetic, the dried 'frangulabark' was matured at least one year and was a part of mildly laxative medicines, added malt beer, liqueurs and other dietic drinks.

 NB: The barch and fruit were used as a purgative in the past, though their potentially dangerous violent action and side effects means they are now rarely used.


 

















Bees and butterflies
The flowers are popular with bees and the plant is food plant for the brimstone butterfly.






















Other Use: 
The berries were in 1775 mentioned as a means against some horse diseases. The leaves were said to be a good fodder for goats, and if the cows did eat them they gave much milk.(although it is also said that the cattle do not like to eat them because of the thorns). The smell of branches stuck into mole-passages drove away the vermins. The wood was used for inlaid works and shoemaker-pegs, the branches gave a good grip around beer jugs etc. In Vendsyssel (North Jutland) the branches were bound around vessels, and baskets were plaited from the split branches etc. The branches were baked in front of the oven to soften them and then straighten them out into walking sticks. Charcoal from this wood was the best for hunting powder, in 1895 a forest cultivation was recommended for this - from Mårum Skovdistrikt were sold logs and branches for the army's powder work in Frederiksværk.




Text and photo: grethe bachmann
Source: Folk og flora, Dansk Etnobotanik 3, V.J. Brøndegaard 1979.

Red Elderberry / Druehyld

Sambucus racemosa



Red Elderberry is native to Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The whole plant is poisonous to people, also the tempting red berries. Other common names for Red Elderberry are Scarlet Elder, Mountain Elder, Stinking Elder, Bore Tree etc.

The name Sambucus is from Greek sambuca = a stringed instrument supposed to have been made from elder wood, and racemosa comes from the Latin racemus, the stalk of or a cluster of a bunch of grapes "with racemes". The flowers are greenish-white,the berries bright red and round, the marrow is brown in contrast to common elder which has white marrow.

The plant provides valuable nesting and perching habitat for birds - and the berries provide food for many species of birds - in Denmark especially blackbird, thrush and songbirds. The berries are also food for deer, squirrels, foxes and mice.

The wood is hard and has been used for combs, spindles, pegs, pipestems, flutes, toy whistles. Medical use has been made of all parts. Dyes can be made from the bark, fruit and stems, and an insecticide from the dried leaves.

Red Elderberry is useful in stabilizing soil and controlling erosion on moist sites.


Poisonous substance:
All kinds of Sambucus contain a poisonous substance:Samburigin (cyanoglykocid) in leaves and in the unripe fruits. The druehyld is the most poisonous but its poisonous effect is limited to stomachache. In the past the sambucus was used  as a vomiting means . The seeds in all sambucus contain  a resin which gives dizziness and is diuretic , but the resin is destroyed by cooking. ( see wikipedia for more information)


text and photo : grethe bachmann

The Fungi-World in Autumn

In a Forest at Løvenholm manor, Djursland.

                                                                                                                           (Flora and Fauna)

After some rain there were many mushrooms in the September-forest. The forest at Løvenholm manor on Djursland is usually a good place to find a good variation of mushrooms.

The first collection of my mushroom-photos is from Løvenholm, the second from a heath at Vrads Sande and the third from a forest close to Silkeborg. 


                                                                        

The autumn is high season of fungi in the woods, both the edible and the poisonous. There are many guided tours with experts who'll guide people to find the good edible mushrooms and to avoid the dangerous ones.

Many groups are out in the forest with baskets, gathering mushrooms for their dinner and many love to go fungi-hunting in the autum, where numbers of toadstools after a heavy rain suddenly tell people that now has autumn arrived.

The fungi are so deviant from plants and animals that the overall collective term flora and fauna  had to be expanded by a third unit which only includes the fungi.  Until the middle of the 1900s the fungi were considered to be plants, but however the scientists acknowledged that the fungi were so deviating from other organisms that they should have their own group. There are supposedly about 1.5 million fungi worldwide. In Denmark are over 6000 species.

 Many years' research has shown that fungi in fact er more closely related to animals than to plants. The research has also proved that fungi have an important  role in the decomposition of organic substances in the soil.






2) At a heath at Vrads Sande, Mid Jutland

Vrads Sande, in  Mid Jutland.

                                                                                                                                                              

Edible fungi have been known by humans for thousands of years, fx in China. In the old Rome people also knew about both edible and poisonous mushrooms, and they believed they were outgrowths from the moist soil. Not until 1710 the Italian Pier Antonio Micheli discovered that fungi reproduces by fungal spores - and he described several species. But it was the Dutchman Christian Hendrik Persoon (1761-1836) and the Swede Elias Fries (1794- 1878), who are considered the founders of mycology.
 

Fungi are able to create very complicated organic connections  Several fungi create substances, which when eaten can attack the human organs, fx kidneys and liver, this often causes death.The most common cause of fungi-poisoning in Denmark is the substance Alfa- amanitin which among others are found in the Amanita virosa (Danish Hvid Fluesvamp), European Destroying Angel. Immature specimens of A. virosa resemble several edible species commonly consumed by humans, increasing the risc of accidental poisoning.

Amanita phalloides (Danish: Grøn Fluesvamp),  commonly known as the Death Cap, which resembles several edible species , commonly consumed by humans, increasing the risk of accidental poisoning

Other poisonous substances are Orellanin and Gyromityrin, and finally the substance Muscarin, which acts as a neurotoxin on the heart.


 3) In a Forest close to Silkeborg

The forest

Some fungi have a hallucinating effect without being directly poisonous. Psilocybin-fungi grows all  over the world and were known long before our time. Already in 500-1000 BC humans have been drawing mushrooms upon stones in religious connections. In many countries the mushrooms were an important part of religious ceremonies and rituals. The fungi had a divine status in such cases - and in Mexico people believed in a god called Piltzintecuhtli,who was the god of all hallucinogenes, especially of the sacred mushroom.

The use of psilocybin-fungi has been done ever since, although it is illegal in many countries today. It has been illegal in Denmark since 2001 because of the risc of bad trips and poisoning. 


As it is difficult to accurately identify a safe mushroom without proper training and knowledge, it is often advised to assume that a wild mushroom is poisonous and not to consume it.

 













Fairy Rings
 Danish: Heksering:  A fairy ring, also known as fairy circle, elf circle, elf ring or pixie ring, is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms. Fairy rings are the subject of much folklore and myth worldwide—particularly in Western Europe While they are often seen as hazardous or dangerous places, they can sometimes be linked with good fortune.

One of the largest rings ever found is near Belfort in France. Formed by Infundibulicybe geotropa, it is thought to be about 600 metres (2,000 ft) in diameter and over 700 years old. On the South Downs in southern England, Calocyve gambosa has formed huge fairy rings that also appear to be several hundred years old.

I have not added any names of the mushrooms in my photos. I do not gather mushrooms, I only take photos and  I buy my good edible mushrooms in the supermarket, but I think it is an exciting period in the autumn forest when all the pretty and mysterious mushrooms pop up with their fine colours in the green moss.


photo Djursland and Mid Jutland, September 2014: grethe bachmann

Guelder Rose/ Almindelig Kvalkved

Guelder Rose, Bjerre skov/gb

Viburnum opulus


When winter comes and most fruits have fallen from the trees, the Guelder Rose still stands with its fine red fruits and richly coloured autumn leaves. The shrub forms underwood and edges in mixed hardwood forests in wet and mineral rich soil all over Europe. It thrives both in full sun and half shadow and stands wind and frost.

Guelder Rose, Bjerre skov/gb

It has got a lot of names in English: Cramp bark / Cranberry tree / Dog rowan tree / European cranberry bush / Guelder rose / High cranberry / Highbush cranberry / King's crown / May rose / Pempina / Pimpina / Rose elder / Silver bells / Snowball Tree / Water elder / Whitsun bosses / Whitsun rose / Whitten Tree / Wild Guelder rose.











The Guelder Rose was earlier ascribed to the honeysuckle-family, (like snowberry and elder) but genetic studies under Angiosperm Phylogeny Group have shown that it belongs to the Adoxaceae-family. The botanical name is Viburnum opulus. It is a species of Viburnum native to Europe and Asia. The common name Guelder Rose appears to have originated because a popular cultivar, the snowball tree, supposedly first originated in the Dutch province of Guelderland.
 

The White flowers of Guelder rose(wikipedia )

The white flowers are pollinated by various insects; the inflorescence reminds about the hydrangea. The seeds are dispersed by birds, and the leaves are often eaten by caterpillars. The shrub is also cultivated as a component of hedgerows, coverplantings, and as part of other naturalistic plantings in its native regions. Guelder Rose is a good bush in the garden, not just because of the fruits, but it is a good hiding place for birds and their nests. Guelder rose is spread both by seeds and root-suckers. Berry-eating birds ar very fond of the berries, especially winter birds like fieldfare and Bohemian waxwing. The berries are poisonous to humans. The leaves are often eaten by caterpillars.

Kvalkved/Guelder rose, Vestamager, Sjælland/gb

From September it stands with red glistening fruits which stay at the bush until January-February. First when the fruits begin to rot, they are very much sought after by birds.

The fruit is actually considered poisonous, but however used in some countries to make jelly. It is  very mildly toxic, and may cause vomiting or diarrhea if eaten in large amounts (Plants for a Future).











 Practical use. The berries have anti-scorbutic properties. They turn black in drying and have been used for making ink. The wood was used for combs making combs in looms, tobacco pipes etc. From the straight branches were made pipe tubes and walking sticks, the strongest branches were used to make knitting needles. 


The berries were used as baits in bird traps.

Folk Medicine: The dried bark was used in a tincture, known as "Cramp Bark," to alleviate painful menstrual cramps.This herb was mainly used for treating feminine problems like menstrual cramps, postpartum discomfort, preventing miscarriages and internal hemorrhages and was used as a uterine sedative also.

The Nix ( Theodore Kittelsen, Norway 1904/wikipedia

Folklore: In Danish its common name is Kvalkved, an old name is Ulvsrøn and in folklore it is called Vand-hyld (Water-Elder). The God in the water stream, Noekken,  (the Nix) was said to lie in wait for people under the water-elder, playing enthralling music. The Nix was most dangerous to women and children.
 
If people had a stick of Guelder rose in their pocket, the underworld had no power over them.









Source: Brøndegaard, Etnobotanik, Folk og flora; Danmarks natur; Gyldendal, Politikens havebog, samt Wikipedia. 

photo Bjerre skov, Horsens in September : grethe bachmann
photocopy  from wikipedia

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.