The first time I was with a family friend and watched him pick and eat wild mushrooms, it was as if I'd discovered a new strain of magic.
Today, I'll eat chicken mushrooms if they look exactly like the ones I've seen before. Otherwise I'll pass.
I sort of feel like those killer whales that have to be taught by other whales that fish are food, as their pod specialized in seals or penguins.
Absolutely. Really, eating anything you find in the wild is risky unless you’re completely sure what it is. (Wild strawberries are pretty easy to identify, for example.)
They fooled me once. I picked and ate one, noticed it didn't taste right almost immediately. Once you look more closely, the fruit is quite obviously different in shape and texture, but the leaves are near-perfect and the fruit is the right color.
It certainly gave me a quick and fortunately danger-free reminder that there's a world of difference between "hey that looks like..." and "yes, after careful examination, this is...".
It depends on the culture