On 23/05/2013 12:05, wrote:
In article ,
Martin wrote:

Yes. he has the usual problem with Boletus satanas, of course :-)

That is almost universally claimed to be deadly, but evidence for
that is essentially absent. While there probably has been the odd
death, that is also true of many of the poisonous mushrooms NOT
classified as deadly - some people are very sensitive to particular
toxins or otherwise vulnerable. But nobody wants to risk downgrading
it to merely poisonous!

He says possibly "Poisonous – possibly deadly"

Not my point. He includes it in the short list of deadly fungi,
but does not include many others that have been known to cause
many more deaths. It has had a bad press for at least a century,
but there is no evidence for it. But, BECAUSE all books refer to
it as deadly, all authors play safe and continue to classify it
as deadly.

Wiki says poisonous but doesn't say deadly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_satanas

Wikipedia is not a mycology reference, amateur or otherwise, and
should never be trusted with life-threatening decisions. It is
usually reliable, but that's not enough.

Even the trustworthy reference books have some misleading pictures in
them although the verbal descriptions are usually OK. The basic rule is
if you are uncertain and do not have a tame expert mycologist to hand
then don't risk eating it. We do have an expert in our village.

Most French villages you can take your pick along to the pharmacy where
someone who knows will tell you which are safe to eat. Always struck me
as bit iffy since they don't actually eat them but it seemed to work.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown