"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 12/11/2011 17:18, Emery Davis wrote:
On 11/12/2011 05:21 PM, Sue wrote:
The fairies have returned to the end of my garden, if
red toadstools
they're always illustrated as sitting on are any
indicator. This
afternoon I was quite pleased to find we've got four Fly
Agarics in
a group in grass under the silver birches.

I know these toadstools are somewhat poisonous but they
do look
attractive. There are always brownish fungi of various
sorts popping up
at this time of year down the end there, but the last
time we had a
single solitary Fly Agaric was 6 years ago in Autumn
2005. Something
seems to have been nibbling or pecking at these latest
ones, so I hope
they're not too poisonous to wildlife.


Don't eat them, or you're likely to see the fairies too!


They really are attractive fungi, very common here in
Normandy where
they are known locally as "montre-cepe" (the common name
is "tue-mouche"
or fly killer) because the have a habit of growing near
the delicious
Boletus edulis.

Slugs and snails love Amanitas, I wouldn't worry about
the wildlife.

cheers,

-E


I think that this photo I took in Bedgebury Arboretum a
couple of years ago should put paid to the myth that flies
are killed by Fly Agaric.

http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/c756dd7038_0.07MB
(download from link)

Great photo, thanks for sharing.