But most experts think that picking mushrooms is a bit like picking apples: it leaves the plant intact.

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The related, and peculiarly British, appetite for nit-picking also reared its head with Lynne Truss's bad grammar diatribe Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

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Picking up a pink bunch of roses, Hess shows me he'll be looking at leaves and stems for plant rust, mildew, whitefly and many more bugs.

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