Part XII

Lookalikes

32 named mix-ups — tea leaves, white umbels, autumn cups, and two plants that share a common name. A comparison is not a forage license.

Foxglove and comfrey as a botanical teaching diptych

Foxglove for comfrey in a kettle is the worst garden story in this folio. Poison hemlock for parsley is the worst roadside one. If a plant is not in flower and you cannot name it, it is not tea, salad, or a wild carrot.

Pairs involving Fly agaric.

Deadly mix-upForage

Amanita for a grocery cap

A white or orange cap in grass is not Agaricus. Fly agaric and its deadly cousins still get eaten by people who trusted a photograph.

Amanita often keeps a volva at the base, a ring, and white gills that do not bruise brown. Button mushrooms (Agaricus) have pink-then-brown gills and a grocery smell. Never eat a wild cap on an app’s word — especially not a mushroom.