The ways in which we try to make sense of fungi often tell us as much about ourselves as the fungi we try to understand. The yellow staining mushroom (Agaricus xanthodermus) is described in most field guides as poisonous. A keen mushroom hunter with a large mycological library once told me about an old guidebook he owned, in which the same mushroom was described as ‘delicious, when fried’, although the author did add as an afterthought that the mushroom ‘may cause a light coma in those of weak constitution’. How you make sense of the yellow staining mushroom depends on your physiological make‐up. Although poisonous to most people, some are able to eat it without ill effect. How it is described will depend on the physiology of the person doing the describing.

— Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake