Amanita muscaria Beer Coasters

I have a large collection of poisonous plant plates that I wanted to finally share with everyone. For now, I would like to share them in this format.

The common name Fly Agaric is a reference to the tradition of using this mushroom as an insecticide. In some European countries caps of Amanita muscaria are crumbled up and placed in saucers of milk to attract house flies. The flies drink the milk, which contains ibotenic acid that not only attracts flies but also poisons them. (Ibotenic acid is soluble in water and hence in milk also, and so the ibotenic acid is dissolved from within the mushroom.) As the flies drink the milk they become drowsy, collapse and die (or perhap they simply drown in their spiked milk drink!). The specific epithet muscaria comes from the Latin word musca, meaning 'a fly'.

Dimensions: 
3.5 Inch Square

Media: 
Wood, Paper, Resin

Year: 
2020

Description: 

The beer coaster is coated in resin and then double coated in a varnish to prevent objects placed on top of the coaster to stick.