Mushroom Profile - A Little Knowledge about Mushrooms
Mushroom is associated with nature and the beauty of the forest. It is considered a good luck symbol. Finding a mushroom is considered to be very lucky and mean good fortune is at hand. I love different species of mushroom, the following I have chosen a few mushroom species of all that we can most commonly seen.
Amanita Muscaria (Fly Agaric)
Feature: Deep red with white "warts" on the top
Location: Northern Hemisphere
Symptoms after consume: Nausea, twitchiness, delirium, seizures, coma
Amanita Muscaria
Amanita Caesarea
Feature: Edible, brilliant red-orange
Location: North Africa, Southern Europe (mainly in Itlay)
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Amanita Caesarea
Amanita Phalloides (Death Cap)
Feature: Greenish in colour with a white stripe and gills
Location: Europe
Symptoms after consume: Severe vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach pain, kidney and liver failure
Amanita Phalloides
Cortinarius Rubellus (Deadly Webcap)
Feature: Brown, with conical to convex cap
Location: Europe and North America
Symptoms after consume: Flu-like symptoms, renal failure, frequent urination, kidney pain, lack of urinating
Cortinarius Rubellus
Cortinarius Orellanus (Fool's Webcap)
Feature: brown all over with a concave cap
Location: Central and eastern Europe
Symptoms after consume: Flu-like symptoms, renal failure, frequent urination, kidney pain, lack of urinating
Cortinarius Orellanus
Conocybe Filaris (Fool's Conecap)
Feature: Smooth brown top with long, smooth brown stalk
Location: Pacific Northwest, Europe, Aisa, North America
Symptoms after consume: Liver Failure
Conocype Filaris
Mushroom in Literature
Mushroom is the iconic symbol in the fantasy world. Mushroom has always been the main element in fairy tales, folklore, literatures and movies. For examples, Shakespeare's and J.K. Rowling's work, how mushrooms have captured the imagination of writers. One of the most successful pieces is Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland", which take place amidst a surreal land that is home to many amazing creatures anf plenty of gigantic mushrooms.
Another one is Shakespeare's "The Tempest", talking about Prospero observes that it is the pastime of elves to "make midnight mushrooms" and scholar has suggested that the fits of Caliban show that he was suffering from ergot poisoning.
Not only the world-famous literature writers used mushroom in their story, mushrooms also be mentioned by well-known science fiction authors, like Ray Bradbury and John Wyndham, writers often turn to mushroom when searching for a metaphor for decay or rottenness (e.g Shelly Keats, Tennyson, Sir Authur Conan Doyle, D.H. Lawrence and Emily Dickinson).
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Further reading:
Klein, Joanna (2017) A Mushroom Out of a Fairy Tale That You Might Find in the Forest
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/science/mushrooms-fly-agaric.html
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Justin Erik Halldór Smith, (2011) Mushroom and Literature
http://www.jehsmith.com/1/2011/06/mycophilia.html
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Mushroom Hunting
During the time I went back to Hong Kong, I went hiking and did a little mushroom hunting. I found a few species, The Blewit, Galerina marginata, Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, and some I can't even identify.
