CabAug 5, 2023
Boost please British folk. Woods here are FULL of death caps. Amanita phalloides. In decades of picking I have never seen as many as here on Cambridge today. It not even usually common here. It's brutally poisonous, please share a warning to avoid it #mushtodon #fungi #mushrooms
Show threadbodhidaveAug 5, 2023

@cabd

Not that I'd be tempted with this one, but I'm reminded — this is my first summer in a home outside Asheville, North Carolina. And I'm finding a surprising number of plants which grow in my hillside yard are edible and medicinal ... but not this one:

"Cuckoo Pint" is described as "highly poisonous."

(P.S. I've learned that "pint" here has a rather, um, colorful etymology.)

Show threadCab
@bodhidave Beautiful plant isn't it? Is it native there? A common native woodland plant here in the UK.
Aug 5, 2023 at 8:43pmWeb
Show threadbodhidaveAug 6, 2023

@cabd

I'm in the mountains of North Carolina. Wikipedia tells me Cuckoo Pint is not native here. But there are several in the overgrown bank behind my house, as are a few other non-native plants in the area.

I also have a Rose of Sharon flowering in the front yard, which I read is native to China, but there are a number of them in my neighborhood.