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In California, Poisonous Death Cap Mushrooms Are the Forager's Bane
- reitanqild 11y agoAs partially colorblind (like 10% of all men) picking mushrooms scares me. Not saying I don't pick musrooms, only I only pick mushrooms I'm sure don't have any dangerous lookalikes.
- CapitalistCartr 11y agoAt the moment, I'm reading Euell Gibbons (Stalking the Faraway Places). I love his work, and he gathers mushrooms, but that's where I draw the line. Too much downside risk.
- wool_gather 11y agoThere are several wild mushrooms that are unique in appearance, or have only one or two problematic lookalikes that are easily tested. If you're interested in picking, you can look into them. The "chicken of the woods" and "hen of the woods" are perfect starter mushrooms. (Although chickens' edibility when growing on softwoods is questioned, so it depends where you live.) There is nothing that bears any resemblance to them. Chanterelles and porcini each have a few straightforward guidelines for distinguishing them.
- tristanj 11y agoNot mentioned in the article, but the victims are often people who grew up in other countries where it's safe to eat wild mushrooms. After moving here they keep the same habits and pick these poisonous mushrooms. There were quite a few cases where asian immigrants mistook death caps for the edible Asian paddy straw mushroom, and got very sick.
- beefsack 11y agoIn the past decade or so here in Canberra, Australia, we've had a handful of fatalities in the local Chinese community. Death cap mushrooms can look similar to straw fungi, which is popular in Chinese cooking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides#Similarity_to_edible_species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides#Similarity_...
- wool_gather 11y agoIf you mistake any amanita, let alone a death cap, for any of the other mushrooms mentioned in the article -- hedgehog, matsutake, or chanterelle -- you're simply not paying enough attention to be picking mushrooms to be eaten. Never mind the gills, which were mentioned in the article, the ring is a dead giveaway, and if you don't know what the ring is, again, you shouldn't be picking mushrooms to eat. (The way that amanitas form and grow often leaves a tattered-looking membrane circling the middle of the stem. You can see it in the pictures in the article.) I'm sorry that this lady got so sick. Luckily, she got a second chance, and hopefully she will learn more about what she's doing before she goes picking again.
- jinushaun 11y agoI also grew up picking and eating wild mushrooms. The popular edible wild mushrooms like chanterelle and matsutake are very distinct and easily identifiable. I avoid ambiguous edible varieties. When in doubt, throw it out. I can only assume she was careless or clueless.
- yread 11y agoI like blushers but you really have to be able to positively identify it as it's easy to confuse with (in Europe) common super poisonous mushrooms.
- matwood 11y agoGiven how hard wild mushrooms can be to identify, I'm surprised that there are people who pick and eat them.
- maxerickson 11y agoIt isn't that hard, you just have to be careful not to overestimate your knowledge of the mushrooms where you are picking. There are many varieties that can be visually identified with very high confidence after only moderate practice. Fortunately morels fall into this category, they're delicious. It's true that there are mushrooms that can be confused with morels, but it's also true that it doesn't take all that much practice to understand the differences.
- pluteoid 11y agoCorrectly identifying any given mushroom can be hard, requiring the right taxonomic keys (and the comprehensive ones come in multiple volumes), a microscope, various stains and reagents, and lots of training. Field mycologists have a term, LBM, meaning "little brown mushroom", which speaks to the pain of separating such specimens to species level even with lots of ID experience. On the other hand there are many edible species which are unmistakeable and which you can quickly learn to reliably identify based on obvious features. In many European countries, foraging for wild mushrooms is a traditional pastime and intimately linked with national cuisine.
- microcolonel 11y agoI have to say; when I was a kid (in Alberta, not California), the general advice was not to pick and eat mushrooms without significant knowledge. I don't really see the allure either, common table mushrooms are very tasty and plentiful. I think this is just one of the Darwin award's new qualifying categories.
- pyre 11y agoMushrooms can have a variety of flavours. I bought one at a farmer's market in Oregon several years ago that smelled like fried fish, and tasted a bit like it too. It was only cooked over a grill with some olive oil. It was a "found" mushroom too, the guy before me was chatting with the seller about training truffle-finding dogs. My favourite hot-and-sour soup is filled with a variety of funguses (well 2 or 3). Though these are not "found" mushrooms, they are different from the "common table mushrooms" that I believe you're talking about. edit: This is the one that I bought at the farmer's market: http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Abalone_Mushrooms_3288.php http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Abalone_Mushrooms_32...
- cjensen 11y agoYes, that is the normal advice for California too. Usually it's immigrants who die from death caps due to mistaken identity. The article is shocking to me because it involves a non-immigrant picking and eating mushrooms without expert knowledge: that's suicidal behavior.
- kyleblarson 11y agoHave you tasted Morels?
- flashman 11y agoIt'd be cool if there were mushroom-testing reagent kits, like for MDMA etc. Edit: apparently chemical tests exist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_tests_in_mushroom_identification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_tests_in_mushroom_ide...
- Alex3917 11y agoIt's not needed, it only takes an hour or so to teach a beginner the major genuses that contain poisonous species. In fact for the first year the rule is basically that if it looks like a mushroom then don't eat it.
- im3w1l 11y ago> In fact for the first year the rule is basically that if it looks like a mushroom then don't eat it. Sure, that prevents people from dying. But what about all those mushrooms that people didn't dare pick? Is that not a loss - a loss that could be remedied by such a kit?
- Alex3917 11y ago> Is that not a loss - a loss that could be remedied by such a kit? Not really. Just because something doesn't contain a handful of specific poisons doesn't mean you want to eat it. The vast majority of mushrooms are neither poisonous nor edible.
- gojomo 11y agoIs there (or could there be) a quick, layperson-usable chemical test for the toxins? (If so, it could be applied to both the raw mushrooms and dishes like soups prepared from them.)
- madengr 11y agoSomewhere I read that if a mushroom has white gills then it could be poisonous, and that brown gills are safe to eat. Not that I'm going to pick mushrooms, but is that advice sound?
- ShroomMan 11y agoAbsolutely not
- maxerickson 11y agoI did a couple minutes of looking to find a poisonous mushroom with brown gills: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerina_marginata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerina_marginata Such simplistic rules are a bad idea when foraging. Before you eat anything, positively identify it.
- mordechai9000 11y agoNot at all. The bit about white gills is probably referring to Amanitaceae, which include some marvelously toxic species that destroy the human liver. But the advice is way too general to be useful. Brown-gilled species are not universally edible, and white-gilled species are not universally poisonous. To forage safely for plants or mushrooms, you should know the identifying characteristics of your target species and any non-edible lookalikes. There are definitely no general rules for determining mushroom edibility. A great resource is Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora.
- pluteoid 11y agoThere are no simple rules like that which can reliably differentiate edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. The best way to start foraging is by learning some relatively unmistakeable edible species and only picking those.
- pyrophane 11y agoNo. The deadly webcap is an example of a poisonous mushroom that had brown gills. It can be found in northern Europe. Further, there is a broad category of difficult to identify mushrooms referred to as "little brown mushrooms" that includes poisonous brown filled species. The notion that brown gilled mushrooms are safe whereas white gilled mushrooms are not sounds like region-specific folk knowledge, and given the way mushroom species migrate and the existence of relatively rare mushrooms, I wouldn't count on it to be reliable anywhere in the world. Positive identification is the only safe way to select edible mushrooms, and as this article points out even that bears the risk of false identification, particularly if you aren't fully aware of what other similar species to check for.
- andlier 11y agoHere in Norway we had this publicly funded mushroom control staff located strategically near the forest to allow people to get their mushroom-forage checked by an expert. They would literally go through all the mushrooms in your basket and throw out any mushrooms they couldn't positively identify as edible. Unfortunately the money "ran" out. I guess we'll take the hit as an increased spending on public healthcare instead. http://www.newsinenglish.no/2015/08/10/money-ran-out-for-mushroom-control-over-protests/ http://www.newsinenglish.no/2015/08/10/money-ran-out-for-mus... edit: here's a better link with pictures, but in norwegian: http://www.nrk.no/norge/savner-stotte-til-soppkontroll-1.11907766 http://www.nrk.no/norge/savner-stotte-til-soppkontroll-1.119...
- Alex3917 11y agoSeems like a waste of money. If people want to learn the edible species they can just join their local mushroom club like in the US. I can see paying someone to be there a couple hours a week, but as a full time job that seems ridiculous.
- vinay427 11y agoPerhaps training those who are already stationed (forest/park rangers, etc.) would be a more efficient path. I think the point of accessible trained staff as opposed to a mushroom club is to target those who would otherwise not take the effort to investigate what they gathered, and end up consuming harmful species.
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- mlvljr 11y agoThis one mushroom is pretty well-known to be deadly here in Russia, knew that since age 3 or so. Good thing, it is easy to recognize. Anyways, never ever try out your luck with mushrooms, if you were not well-taught to deal with them by someone experienced, in person (internet advice / taking and sending m-room photos do not count, period). Couple seasons of mushroom-hunting alongside someone, willing to teach you, is a minimum before you ever decide to put any mushroom you picked up yourself into your (or someone else's) mouth. Btw, even experienced people sometimes do not pick up mushrooms, they have suspicions about (there are some not quite deadly ones here, masquerading as edible in my place, for example).
- Gustomaximus 11y agoSomething to be aware of in Australia also; http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-07/death-cap-mushroom-season-arrives-early-in-canberra/6077330 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-07/death-cap-mushroom-sea... Another common garden plant most people dont know to be aware of is Oleander. I see this everywhere like in schools and am amazed. People have died using the branches as skewers to cook. The smoke can also be poisonous if people burn this plant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerium And for interest, only a problem in North Queensland check out the Gympie Gympie tree. This is really something to keep a wide berth. Amazing what nature can produce. http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2009/06/gympie-gympie-once-stung,-never-forgotten/ http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-enviro...
- caf 11y agoThere are signs up around the ACT like this: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VeN5uDOjoIA/Tx9Qq5oQCLI/AAAAAAAArVw/8KT2YHgqWhs/s600/Mushrooms.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VeN5uDOjoIA/Tx9Qq5oQCLI/AAAAAAAArV...
- reefoctopus 11y agoDeath cap survivor story: https://blog.mycology.cornell.edu/2006/11/22/i-survived-the-destroying-angel/ https://blog.mycology.cornell.edu/2006/11/22/i-survived-the-...
- cplease 11y agoWhat's with all the fungiphobia? Within USA/Canada, learn to identify death caps and destroying angels. If you stay away from any mushroom that you aren't sure is one of these two, don't eat any wild mushrooms raw (very few mushrooms are good raw anyway), and don't gorge on anything that isn't obviously identifiable, your odds of doing yourself any permanent harm are very low. That's not to say all other species are "safe." Obviously, you should only collect species that you can identify. But amanitas are basically trivial to identify (know their tricks, cut mushrooms in half to check for hidden/immature gills), and if you don't eat Amanitas (again, in USA/Canada), it would be a truly freak incident if you actually died of poisoning. You're more likely to be eaten by a bear. If you are incapable of this, then not only do you have no business foraging for mushrooms you probably shouldn't be preparing your own food. Number of people killed or disabled due to foraging poisonous mushrooms is nothing compared to those killed by improper food preparation and handling, but you don't see people quaking in their boots in the poultry aisle of the grocery. The article cites five deaths in five years in all of California. How many people died of salmonella and botulism in that time? How many mushroom-phobes would be so reckless as to drink "raw" milk? A lot of supposedly poisonous mushrooms are in fact edible, especially when boiled.