Go ask Alice. . .

. . . what this toadstool is - she's sure to know.

Amanita muscaria, commonly know as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a poisonous and psychoactive basidiomycete fungus. Native to the Northern Hemisphere, here in Oz its an introduced fungus, usually as a symbiont with pine plantations.

Although it is generally considered poisonous, deaths from its consumption are extremely rare, and it is eaten as a food in part of Europe, Asia and North America after parboiling. Of particular interest is it's being noted for its hallucinogenic properties.

Some years ago the Sydney Morning Herald, the best newspaper in Australia (can I hear howls from down south???) did a story of mushroom collecting up here and had an image of this and a pine mushroom. Unfortunately they had transposed the captions and declared this one delicious! We rang and advised them of their mistake and they changed it for the afternoon edition - but still!