Chinese rules of thumb have killed many Chinese Australians and Americans via death cap (truth in naming) mushrooms that look like paddy straw mushrooms
A decent survival strategy would be to be poisonous and recognizably colored. If you look like any other mushroom, it’s just revenge-poisoning. Possibly with the side effect of animals not eating any mushrooms, but that doesn’t sound like something that’s in a given mushroom species’ interest.
Chinese rules of thumb have killed many Chinese Australians and Americans via death cap (truth in naming) mushrooms that look like paddy straw mushrooms
The amatoxins in deathcap and its relatives is so incredibly scary… Like, picograms of the stuff in an adult human will just basically turn them off…
I mean, it’s a decent survival strategy for the mushroom, especially depending on where the animal dies.
Imagine that boost of nutrients
Apex predator mushrooms.
A decent survival strategy would be to be poisonous and recognizably colored. If you look like any other mushroom, it’s just revenge-poisoning. Possibly with the side effect of animals not eating any mushrooms, but that doesn’t sound like something that’s in a given mushroom species’ interest.
Sneaky death mushrooms get to break down the body, potentially
Incredibly poisonous, food-colored, and with spores that can survive/germinate in a digestive tract.