She invited four people over for lunch. A week later, three were dead. (www.washingtonpost.com)

submitted 1 year ago by BrikoX@lemmy.zip to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1247075

Archived version: https://archive.ph/dJJGi
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230809131335/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/09/australia-poisonous-mushroom-lunch-police/

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[-] demystify@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Right, sorry. Not a native speaker, didn't know about this distinction.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

It's the difference between drugs and poison, literally the same.

Some mushrooms have psychedelic properties, others just contain poison that will kill you. Pro tip don't eat the poisonous ones, they all look very similar, although I think death caps actually do warn you by being giant and red, but this sounds like a murder rather than accident.

Mushrooms in general are one of those things you should stay away from unless you are 100% certain you know what you are doing.

[-] Jesus_666@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

Death caps aren't red, they're more like a pale green or even entirely white. You're probably thinking of fly agaric, which is also poisonous but not nearly as much so as death cap.

There is a wide variety of poisonous fungi and some of them can look deceptively similar to edible ones. "All poisonous mushrooms look similar" is really not true so yes, never eat anything that you can't identify with 100% certainty.