This isn't my photo, but I love this mushroom. I've never found one. It's my goal to find one and get some good shots of it. It's the amanita muscaria. It's a poisonous mushroom, but deaths related to consuming it are uncommon. This mushroom is pretty common in fairy tales and children's books. They do kind of look like fairy apartments.
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I found a huge one once while on a hike. I regret not picking it and trying it. It typically grows beneath evergreen trees, that's why it appears in so many Christmas illustrations. There is also a theory that this mushroom is the reason for santa's red & white costume, and that this was the origin of the practice of placing gifts under a tree at Christmas. The 'gift' of the hallucination was knowledge, and perhaps even visions of god(s), since it's use predates Christianity.
