Poisonous Plants & Mushrooms – Learn Your Land

Is Black Walnut Killing Your Plants?

Adam Haritan — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 18:03:14 +0000

“Black walnut kills plants.” I first heard this statement many years ago. Occasionally, I still hear some version of this claim: Black walnut engages in warfare by releasing a chemical into the soil. This chemical kills or inhibits the growth of plants. But is this entirely true? Does black walnut actually kill plants? Some people […]

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Why I’ll Probably Never Eat This Mushroom

Adam Haritan — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 13:51:55 +0000

“Is it edible?” This question constantly runs through the forager’s mind. As it turns out, the answer isn’t always a simple yes or no, particularly regarding wild mushrooms. Some mushrooms are choice edibles. Some mushrooms are toxic raw. Some mushrooms are toxic no matter how thoroughly you cook them. But there’s another category of mushrooms: […]

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Edible vs. Poison Sumac — Learn The Difference

Adam Haritan — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 13:35:55 +0000

Years ago, a friend told me about an edible plant called sumac. She taught me how to make a refreshing beverage from its fruits. “Tastes like pink lemonade,” she said. “Really easy to make, too. But be absolutely certain that you’re foraging an edible sumac and not poison sumac.” Poison sumac, she told me, is […]

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Water Hemlock — The Deadliest Plant In North America

Adam Haritan — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 13:02:05 +0000

In 1992, a 23-year-old man and his 39-year-old brother were foraging for wild ginseng in Maine. The younger brother harvested several plants from a swampy area and took three bites from the root of one plant. The older brother took one bite from the same root. Within three hours, the younger brother died. The older […]

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Foraging The Elusive Mayapple

Adam Haritan — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 14:36:22 +0000

Tropical fruit flavors are not commonly detected in my neck of the woods. When they are, the experience is unforgettable. Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) is an eastern North American plant whose ripe fruit tastes like a mix between pineapple and Starburst candy. All other parts of the plant (e.g., rhizomes, leaves, stems, and unripe fruits) are […]

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12 Mushrooms That Grow In Your Yard

Adam Haritan — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 13:55:14 +0000

The best mushroom books aren’t always mushroom-related. Take the Tao Te Ching, for instance. This piece of Chinese philosophical literature was written approximately 2,500 years ago. The word “mushroom” is not mentioned anywhere in the text, but the Tao Te Ching might be one of the best mushroom books I have ever read. To see […]

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Poison Hemlock — The Plant We Love To Hate

Adam Haritan — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 20:49:54 +0000

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) gets an incredibly bad rap these days. It’s weedy. It’s aggressive. And it’s lethally toxic. Here in the United States, poison hemlock grows in almost every single state. Because many of us will inevitably encounter a naturalized population of poison hemlock, it’s important that we learn its key features and its […]

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Never Be Fooled By Poison Ivy Again

Adam Haritan — Mon, 24 May 2021 18:32:35 +0000

There is no shortage of phrases that we can use to assist with the identification of poison ivy. Most are lyrical and memorable, but few ever describe the less familiar parts of poison ivy (e.g., winter buds, twigs, flowers, autumn foliage). Even then, the phrases that do describe the most familiar parts aren’t entirely foolproof: […]

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Yellow Knight — Thoughts On Eating A “Deadly” Mushroom

Adam Haritan — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 14:53:42 +0000

To determine whether a mushroom is edible or not, time is one factor worth considering. A mushroom that has been eaten for centuries with few adverse events reported is a mushroom that most people would consider to be edible. On the other hand, a mushroom with a centuries-old reputation of being toxic is certainly a […]

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Freckled Dapperling — The Mushroom With A Questionable Reputation

Adam Haritan — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 15:38:50 +0000

Over the years I’ve come to realize that things in nature don’t always fit so neatly into human-constructed categories. Take the Freckled Dapperling, for instance. The Freckled Dapperling (Echinoderma asperum) is a wild mushroom that grows on plant debris during the autumn season. Some sources claim that the Freckled Dapperling is edible; others state that […]

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Looking For Poison In All The Wet Places

Adam Haritan — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 17:12:43 +0000

Swampy wetlands can be unforgiving places during the summer months. The vegetation is thick, the mosquitoes are hungry, and the lack of tree cover forbids any kind of refuge from the mid-day sun. Strange as it may seem, I still find myself drawn to these soggy habitats in search of organisms that are not commonly […]

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New To Mushroom Hunting? Start Here!

Adam Haritan — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 18:06:10 +0000

If your experiences were anything like mine, then you received very little education on the subject of mycology in school. Even during university-level biology classes, I distinctly remember the blatant omission of anything mushroom-related. As luck would have it, I took this as an indication that perhaps there were ulterior motives involved — a kind […]

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