Bright red with creamy tufts on its cap, the fly agaric is a delight to see — even though the mushroom is anything but rare, popping up in parking lots and backyard corners throughout Eugene, Springfield and the wider Cascadia bioregion.
I was admiring a particularly large one laid out among rows of gilled mushrooms at this year’s Mount Pisgah Mushroom Festival when a friend leaned in and whispered: “It inspired Santa.”
Skeptical, I pulled out my phone and found a U.S. Forest Service page backing up exactly what she said — tracing the lore to ancient Siberian solstice ceremonies that gifted the fly agaric…