Friday Fungus: The stuff we didn't eat!

No don't ask me - like a fool I didn't make any notes about the dozens of species that were either inedible, unpleasant, rock hard or outright poisonous! Some of them are in this basket - identify away!

We did learn that you can use Birch Polypores to light fires or make a plaster (I reckon they'd make a passing fair wall myself) and that, as ever, it's not as simple as it sounds when you ask: "is that mushrooms poisonous."

Also encountered were the remnants of mushrooms - oysters and chicken-of-the-woods that we might have been able to eat earlier in the season but now were old and rather chewed about by passing beasts and nibbled by maggots.

And we found some Amanita muscaria (you know the red and white magic mushrooms) - which pleased me most really and gave our guide the chance to tell the tale about the Sami. Mind you I like my version better!

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