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Posted by: tegeus-Cromis Sep 8 2015, 09:09 PM

I did think that Spiddal Sticks were based on globe artichokes after they seeded, based on one I saw in a friend's garden, but I've just found about about the Proteaceae (includes a lot of Southern hemisphere species under genus Protea). Some of the images this Google search throws up look just about right:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=burnt+protea

The clever thing is that (like the globe artichoke), those 'petals' are not petals, they're the outer coating of a fruit - and proteas only open up and seed in response to fire, just right for an Oblivion plane, plus the seeds depend on nutrients released by the fire. (Love to grow some but not sure I want to set fire to the garden every year. What would the neighbours say?) Anyway, I'm pretty sure that's where Beth got those from now.

Now if I could just find some harrada, an excellent hedging plant I'd say, though there is the possibility of criminal charges - 'botanical assault' or something...

Posted by: Acadian Sep 8 2015, 09:26 PM

Nice find!

Every time I'm in the snack isle at the grocery store, I look for imp chips. No luck so far though.

And my liquor store boasts over a thousand types of wine. But do you think they carry Tamika's?

Posted by: tegeus-Cromis Sep 8 2015, 10:16 PM

Well you could always print off some labels, paste over, and pretend. Thankfully, though, we do actually have ***Cheap Wine***. Yay!

(Wish I had some sculptural skills; I'd have a half-size Oblivion Gate (fibreglass, I suppose) sitting in the middle of the lawn and a room lit by Welkynd Stones. Probably best to leave out the blade traps and such, though...)

Posted by: ghastley Sep 8 2015, 11:55 PM

Now delete the lawn - a proper flaming Oblivion gate would do that for you anyway - and you might have just what Californians need to conserve water. If the welkynds work, they can conserve electricity too.

Posted by: tegeus-Cromis Sep 9 2015, 11:08 AM

Well, hosting a live gate does have some drawbacks - you can end up with a very nasty and recurrent scamp infestation for a start. Can really damage local property values, that.

Posted by: SubRosa Sep 9 2015, 05:06 PM

Great for barbecues though...

Posted by: haute ecole rider Sep 9 2015, 06:07 PM

In addition to that Oblivion Gate, you can add a lava pit for those BBQ pigs (lanai pits, I think they're called IRL?)!

Posted by: Renee Sep 11 2015, 12:42 AM

We get some pretty weird mushrooms in Maryland, and I mean, they'll just sprout on our lawn sometimes, literally overnight. Some of them look like yellow or red cinnabar, but I don't know officially what these guys are called. I'll have to get some pics next time they crop up, IF they do.

Posted by: mirocu Sep 11 2015, 08:31 AM

Sounds like the ones we get in our lawn at the cottage too. Last fall I had immense fun shooting at them with my automatic airsoft AK-47 and Ingram

Posted by: tegeus-Cromis Sep 11 2015, 10:38 AM

I too live in a pretty fungal area (southern Hampshire) and I'm still learning to identify some of the weird stuff out there. (And it's just coming into mushroom season now, got to get out there.) The one obvious Oblivion one we have around here - I know a big patch of them - is 'fly amanita', but I've never heard it called that in RL, it's either amanita muscaria (same thing in Latin) or more usually 'fly agaric'. Not quite as fearsome as its reputation would have, takes about 20-30 for a lethal dose, whereas Death Caps (which I was thinking of putting into Oblivion, I have a suitable mod to add them to) can kill on half a cap. And you'll likely need a liver transplant if you do survive.

But I've picked up on two abundant edible species, puffballs (which I know from childhood, very fine fried in butter with a bit of black pepper) and parasols, I think the only ones I've found of those were a bit old, I wasn't impressed. Need to find some chanterelles. And I too find odd species popping up on the lawn too that weren't there before. Was puzzling, but now I reckon it's because I've been tracking the spores home on my boots from country walks.

Anyway, I did look up the Oblivion species a way back, IIRC most are clearly also real, but often they've been messing with the names. Here is a UK piece on Cinnabar Polypore, though:

http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/pycnoporus-cinnabarinus.php

It's sad, because it's rare and may even be extinct in the UK. I'd be made up if I saw one. But you're more likely to, Renee, link from the US:

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/pycnoporus_cinnabarinus.html

Says it can be rare (Illinois) but is widespread. Wouldn't be on the lawn, though, come to think of it, it's a bracket fungus.

Funny, being prompted to do fungal research by a computer game...