VISIT HELSINKI VANTAA DAILY PHOTO

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Fly Mushroom (Punakärpässieni)


After taking the photos of the mushroom, I went to wait for my train. Then the guy who had walked past me earlier comes up to me and tells me the name of the mushroom and that it was poisonous. I guess he was concerned that I might have touched the mushroom which luckily I did not do so.

I told the man that I hadn't touched it and didn't know it was poisonous. It was an attractive colour and thats why I took the picture. The man further added that I might be able to find bigger non-poisonous mushrooms in a nearby park, Haven't had time to go there yet.

Punakärpässieni in english means red fly mushroom. The scientific name is Amanita muscaria. One fact states that it is used as an recreational drug in Finland. This mushroom also figures in Hindu scriptures and Christainty. Read more in the above link.
Thanx to mountain boy for his comment in the previous post. Read more on what he has to say

More photos here.

6 comments:

Eric said...

I'm so glad you got a close-up of this mushroom Kaa. It is really beautiful, but apparently not the kind you put in salad, as you and mountainboy say.

Kim said...

Oh, these are the mushrooms of my nursery books. . .the ones fairies and nomes hid under and sat upon. The ones bunnies scampered around. They are REAL?!!! Thank you. It is magical to see one!
-Kim

JOAN GONZÁLEZ_MIRATGES said...

ok!!! mira mi blog.

joan

Unknown said...

Nice shot. Isn't it interesting sometimes the most beautiful of things are some of the most dangerous.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info. I figured since it was red with white spots it might be bad....that's the iconic poisonous mushroom color combo. Nice links.

Gerald (Ackworth born) said...

I've just done a post on my blog about the fly agaric fungus and have linked to half a dozen other fungi posts including yours here.

http://ackworthborn.blogspot.com/2007/10/abc-wednesday-o-is-for-oswaldtwistle.html

cheers