FungiFriday: Poisonous Mushroom Field

These images were taken in the second week of December 2023. It wasn't the mushroom walk we had planned, considering the mushrooms were found in a grassland rather than a forest.

At that time, we were hunting insects such as robber flies, hoverflies, and so on. But in the end, what was first seen were the small mushrooms that appeared among the grass.

A happy feeling comes when you see an ownerless mushroom field there. We also had a plan to cook noodles mixed with mushrooms when we got home from there. But then, while we were enjoying taking photos, suddenly we ran into an old local farmer who was passing by. He wondered what we would do with the mushrooms. I had to lie and tell him we were taking mushroom videos for YouTube content. We offered him some of the mushrooms to take home. But unexpectedly, the old man warned us that the mushroom was poisonous. "If you're lucky, you'll only end up in the hospital, but at worst, you'll end up in a cemetery! Hahaha," he said as he walked away. Thank goodness he told us before it all ended badly.

I tried searching via Google and found that this is the pearly powdercap with the scientific name Cystoderma carcharias. Based on the article, this fungus commonly emits an unpleasant odor.

This is per what we saw; this fungus has a strong smell like sewage sludge, and it smells even worse when the mushroom changes color to blackish brown.

We were lucky that the old farmer was kind enough to warn us. If not, maybe December 2023 will be the end for us taking part in the #FungiFriday challenge. 😁

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^{This is my contribution to #FungiFriday hosted and curated by @ewkaw.}

Happy #FungiFriday🍄

^{All of the images here are my work, taken with Xiaomi POCO NFC smartphone and an assembled external macro lens.}