Now obviously poisons exist on the market for pest control purposes and whatnot. But they are clearly labeled as such and usually include some warning about how it being a federal offense to use the product in any way other than the instructions on the packaging.
So, in the United States, would the FDA or some other regulatory agency have a problem with me bringing an extremely deadly fungus or plant to market and selling it, as long as I clearly labeled it somehow as being extremely poisonous and never to be eaten? Would I have to come up with some plausible real use for it, like as a type of pest control?
Ignore for a moment that it’s going to be very hard for me to convince any super markets or whatever to carry my product, and if you’d like, I’ll just be selling them at a farmer’s market or something. Again, clearly marked with what they are and that they are extremely toxic/deadly.
If it varies by state, let’s go with Texas. Assume a plant/fungus that is extremely deadly with no other legitimate medical purposes or whatever other than to just be very poisonous.
About 20 years ago a company came out with a fungus that was designed to somehow breakdown the skeleton on insects. It was being touted as a non toxic naturallly ocuring pesticide. When I last read about it they were in about their 4 th year of research on it. They had to prove it would not be a viable fungus that could spread after initial application. They were investing quite a bit of money into proving its safety. Not sure what ever happened to it.
Lots of ornamental plants are toxic. Nobody regulates them. Generally you have to eat them first. Fungi are a whole different thing I guess. Are you talking about living plants?
These things are sold every day, if they’re only toxic when eaten. Yews and oleanders come to mind. People have died just by using oleander sticks to toast marshmallows.
Snopes says this is highly unlikely - at least for cooking hotdogs on sticks. I would guess that the results would be similarly unspectacular for marshmallows.
Hell, I had a teacher once nearly sent herself into a coma just from *handling *too much datura (Jimson Weed, angel’s trumpet, thornapple) without gloves in one afternoon. Luckily, she was able to mumble what she’d been pruning so I knew she’d sleep it off, but that was pretty scary…
Birch, hydrangea, azaela, periwinkle…lots of toxic ornamentals. No special requirements for handling or selling most of them. (Morning glory seeds for sale have to be coated in something that makes stupid little stoners less likely to eat them to get high, but that’s the only restriction I can think of. And that’s not due to toxicity, but the War on Drugs.)
So, basically, you’ll be collecting the amanita hyphae from forest soil, and market them as a “Make a shady corner of the yard look like a read forest. Plant this soil, and watch Destroying Angels grow!” type thing? Hard to say just how legal this will be, given the above regarding toxic shrubbery: yew, oleander, holly. However, I doubt it will be very practical, because the home conditions might not be good enough to culture the mushrooms from the hyphae. So the practicality may have kept us all safe from the possibility all these years.
Curious thing, the principal toxin in the False Morel is monomethylhydrazine, according to the Audubon Guide. I wonder if growing a large batch of rocket fuel is restricted by other regulations.
Family friends, back in the 60’s, hosted a house-warming party (they were new to the West Coast…) where they used poison oak branches to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. Although not deadly, the results were unpleasant in the extreme.
It’s listed at that link as “All Betula sp.
Toxicity Category 1 - Plants can cause systemic toxicity varying from mild abdominal cramping to serious cardiac complications.”
This birch toxicity sounds just bizarre to my Scandi ears. Birch is widely used for kitchen utensils here precisely because it’s such a benign wood: no taste, no color, no extractives, no resins, nothing but sweet, edible sap that is the basic ingredient in traditional summer drinks and still regularly consumed by health-concious, veggie people. Birch leaves are edible, as well, a worthy source of vitamin C. Birch is also the firewood of choice for barbecuing. Birch tar is used as an insect repellant. I have consumed enough birch sap and birch leaves and worked on birch wood as well as eaten food made using birch wood utensils and cooked over a birch wood fire over my life that I apparently should be severely ill or dead from it, as should most Finns, Swedes and Russians.
A quick perusal through my wood science library finds nothing on birch toxicity. Oak, pine etc. are mentioned as potentially hazardous, due to their high concentrations of extractives and resins, though. I guess American birches must be real different from Europan ones, Betula spp. as they all are.
Reading this thread, I note that I have drunk birch sap and also eaten false morels, both in Finland. Should I worry that someone was trying to kill me?
The birch sap, by the way, is commercially sold in bottles, which makes me doubt that it could be very dangerous.
False Morels can be eaten but you have to parboil them several times first. I’m assuming that’s how yours were prepared. Otherwise you’d be very sick or possibly dead.
Thisis probably the false morel you ate, btw. There are several mushrooms referred to as false morels.