Mushroom or alien life form?
 

Nothing interesting ever happens in our backyard.

But, three days ago, on the periphery of our (large) compost heap, a monster appeared, overnight.

Day 2 was even more impressive.

not an expert on shrooms, but i doubt it's edible.

We wanted to avoid losing fingers, so Son1 was recruited to use his hand as a size reference.

ah, so if somebody have to lose his/her finguer, it's better be your son than you?

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;310166]We wanted to avoid losing fingers, so Son1 was recruited to use his hand as a size reference.[/QUOTE]

Is that another imperial measure -- the hand? And is the hand divided into four fingers, or five digits?

[QUOTE]ah, so if somebody have to lose his/her finguer, it's better be your son than you?[/QUOTE]Of course! We are too old to easily adapt to having fewer digits. Young people are more resilient to adversity.

:max:

[QUOTE=firejuggler;310165]not an expert on shrooms, but i doubt it's edible.[/QUOTE]
I know very little about mushrooms as well, but their toxicity or lack of it has always fascinated me. Some of the most outlandish looking fungi are apparently quite edible and nutricious, whereas others, which look just like the safe mushrooms you find growing naturally in plastic tubs in supermarkets and which by all accounts taste pleasant, can be [I]lethal[/I]. I wonder what possible natural selection effects in the evolution of mushrooms may have contributed to the difficulty of identifying which ones are edible and which will kill you within hours, or whether this was entirely accidental.
Does anyone know of any another species which are sometimes edible and good for you but can betray the unwary so drastically as the mushroom?

We sent pictures of the alien spore to our local friendly "park interpreter".

[URL]http://arkansasstateparks.wordpress.com/what-is-a-park-interpreter/[/URL]

(Look for "Adam Leslie" in the link.)

He is a real cool guy. Just last week we found a juvenile opossum trapped in our backyard and he let us bring it out to the state park and release it. He also does tons of educational programs.

Anyways, he gave us a detailed PDF about local mushrooms but it is copyrighted so we do not think it is permissible to attach it, which is unfortunate because it is very well written.

[QUOTE=Brian-E;310361]Does anyone know of any another species which are sometimes edible and good for you but can betray the unwary so drastically as the mushroom?[/QUOTE]Sus scrofa is both good eating and potentially fatal to the unwary collector.

Fugu is another notorious example of a foodstuff which is both edible and lethal.

still related to the topic :
[url]http://www.freetheflash.com/flash/badger-badger-mushroom-snake.php[/url]
don't try to make sense out of it.