Category: Nature

I don’t know what it is about fungi, but it’s creepy.  It fits into it’s own kingdom, neither plant nor animal, and that makes it plain weird.  Plants too have widely varying degrees of toxicity, so why are mushrooms so terrifying?  They strike some odd form of primal fear, evidenced by the fact that there are multiple X-Files episodes wherein the ultimate “villain” turns out to be an unknown fungus.  Personally, I think I was scarred by my trenchfoot experience.  If you’ve ever had parts of your skin rot and fall off, then break out in these circular fungal formations which turn into holes several millimeters deep into your dermis, then you know what I’m talking about.  Do not Google trenchfoot.

But their allure has captivated my daughter, who likes to point out any mushrooms that appear in our yard.  There must have been a lot of trees on the lot once, because every time it rains, we get these odd paths of toadstools that pop up, presumably along old roots.

So I, iPhone in hand, and Wikipedia at the ready, decided to record and catalog them:

Wikipedia advised that this species is “doubtfully edible”, which doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence–not that I’d base the decision to eat a mushroom off of Internet knowledge anyway.  So many seem to have amatoxin, which leads to renal failure.  I’ll pass.  I told my daughter to wash her hands.

Next on the list is what I think is an Amanita bisporigera.  It looks like something in the Amanita genus anyway.  It was kind of hard to get a definitive identification from pictures.  Still, more amatoxin, somewhat implied by the fungus’ common name: Destroying Angel.  Subtle.

I still have some nightshade in the gardens, despite my weeding campaign.  I dunno if it’s the deadly nightshade, but it does concern me a little.  So I have natural sources of amatoxin, atropine, hyoscine, and hyoscamine apparently.  Of course, I also have lye, gasoline, antifreeze, bleach, insecticide, and even tea tree oil around the house.  Being a parent can be a little scary at times.

This next one was hard, but I’m going with Pleurotus ostreatus, although it looks like a polypore too, so I’m probably wrong.

This one is supposedly edible, but I’m not confident with the identification.

The last one was very easy to identify though, Trametes versicolor.  It’s not only edible, but apparently medicinal as well.

So there you go–a biology post for my family.  I am not, as they seem to suspect, completely disengaged from the natural word.  Especially since everything around us seems to be waiting to kill my progeny.

–Simon

We had the old man down for the weekend.  The kid still likes fishing, so it seemed like a good family activity.  We went to buy some worms from the local Cabella’s for this endeavor, and in the process ran into my neighbor (the village elder), who works there.  Naturally, we got to talking, and he suggested we try one of the local parks: Delco park.  Ordinarily, we venture out to a state park, but we had never tried fishing at the municipal parks here.  Seeing as it had been raining all week, the fishing wouldn’t be good anyway, so rather than drive all the way out to Glen Helen area, we might as well try something closer.  Declo it would be.

We were not alone.  The perimeter was dotted with casual anglers.  Following my neighbor’s very specific instructions, we chose the far wall, near the drainage.  Unfortunately, the fish were very experienced.  They were masters of de-worming a hook without biting the hook itself.  Eventually, dad left his pole unattended and wandered off with the kid.  In that moment, the bobber went under.  I managed to grab the pole in time and hook the fish, which didn’t even fight, but rather resigned itself to its fate.  It was an un-epic battle, but even if it was only a single fish, the fishing venture is considered successful.

I thought it might be a rock bass, and dad considered it to be a mutt of some sort.  Ultimately though, the conclusion was that it was a crappie–a rather unfair name for nice little fish.  Back in the lake he went, off to warn his friends of the danger.  The adventure was concluded with burgers and bourbon.

–Simon