Autumn is the time of year for fungi-finding fun but an Invercargill naturalist warns knowledge of what is edible is needed.
Environment Southland councillor and naturalist Lloyd Esler said while some fungi were edible, some definitely were not. As part of his quest to educate people on the difference, he would be running a "Fungal Foray" in Queens Park next Sunday, at 2pm, at the Feldwick Gates
While he had never seen it before, there was a fungus called death cap.
"Apparently it tastes OK, and then you get the symptoms about eight hours after you’ve eaten it, by which time it is too late."
This was the reason why it was not recommended to eat toadstools if the person did not know what it was, he said.
A lot was still unknown about them, and in the past, consequences of ingesting might have been discovered by someone feeding it to someone they did not like.
"You’d imagine kings summoning a prisoner up from a dungeon and saying, ‘look, if you eat this one and survive, we’ll knock a year off your sentence’, and the prisoner says ‘well, what if I die?’ and the king says ‘well, we’ll name the toadstool after you’."
He said there were about 20 different sorts he was happy to eat.
"The lesson is, just make sure you know what you’re eating. You can’t just taste everything and assume it is going to be OK - it probably will be, but it may kill you."
