Stories tagged hallucinogens
Fall mushrooms in Michigan
Magic mushrooms: photo by Arthur OglesbyWhile walking in the woods of Michigan (Upper Peninsula) I was amazed at the many mushrooms growing there. I think the one in my photo is an amanita muscaria var. formosa or guessowii, also known as fly agaric.
Most famous of mushrooms
This variety of mushroom has become famous because of its depiction in Alice in Wonderland (the perch for the hookah smoking caterpillar), the dancing mushroom sequence in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia, in children's picture books showing gnomes and fairies, and in the video game series Super Mario Bros.
Fly agaric fruiting bodies emerge from the soil looking like a white egg, covered in the white warty material of the universal veil. As the fungus grows, the red colour appears through the broken veil, and the cap changes from hemispherical to plate-like and flat in mature specimens.
How poisonous are they?
Many older books list this mushroom as deadly, but deaths from A. Muscaria are extremely rare. The amount and ratio of chemical compounds per mushroom varies widely from region to region, season to season, confusing the issue. Spring and summer mushrooms may contain up to 10 times as much ibotenic acid (poison) as compared to fall fruitings. According to some sources, the ibotenic acid is detoxified by conversion into muscimol when the mushrooms are properly prepared.
How reindeer fly
Amanita muscaria was widely used as a hallucinogenic drug by many of the peoples of Siberia. I have often heard about people drinking the urine of rheindeer that have eaten the mushrooms, or poor people drinking the urine of those wealthy enough to buy these mushrooms. I wonder if this started the myth about flying reindeer? One source in wikipedia even credits Santa claus and hanging stockings by the fireplace to amanita muscaria cultures.
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