#  Pop Culture 

 



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Mushrooms in general have long appeared in art, literature, and legend. Often the species of fungi is not identified, and when *Amanita* shows up, it’s often *A. muscaria*, the flashier relative of *A. phalloides*. Because of its deadly nature, *A. phalloides* sometimes appears in crime fiction. In Ruth Rendell’s short story “Shreds and Slivers” (1994) a man plots revenge against his wife. Kate Atkinson slips a few bits of *A. phalloides* into a man’s soup in *Human Croquet* (1997). And in legend, any number of notables were supposedly poisoned by *A. phalloides*.   
   
For more information on mushroom poisoning in fiction and legend, see R. Gordon Wasson’s "[The Case for Claudius or Mushrooms for Murderers](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7467170)" published in Botanical Museum Leaflets in 1972