Plantwatch: Beware a tasty mushroom with a powerful hallucinogen

Anyone eating Lanmaoa asiatica could have visions for days of tiny people running and jumping around Lanmaoa asiatica is a bolete mushroom, prized for its delicious taste and hugely popular in Yunnan province, China, where it is found growing in a symbiotic relationship with pine trees. But anyone eating the mushroom needs to be careful because it also gives hallucinations of lots of tiny people about 2cm tall wearing brightly coloured clothes, all jumping, running, climbing and being general...

By Paul Simons