Enthusiasts say mycology offers connection, nourishment and a deeper tie to the land – and the African diasporaOn her typical walk in the woods in Newton, Massachusetts, something stopped Maria Pinto in her tracks. She spotted what appeared to be a glowing yellow figure with a metallic sheen among the pine needles on the ground. It was the first time Pinto was enthralled by a mushroom – the American yellow fly agaric, a poisonous fungus that is relatively common where Pinto lives in Massachusetts.“It forced me down on my knees to examine it further, because it didn’t look real,” Pinto, a naturalist and writer, said. “It looked like it was from another dimension.” On that day in 2013, she captured the mushroom from dozens of angles on her phone. Continue reading...

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2026/may/16/mushrooms-black-foragers