Deadly
Death cap
Amanita phalloides
The character that does the work
White gills, a ring, and a membranous sac at the base. All three together, in a mushroom growing from soil near trees, and you should stop.
Amanitin, a cyclic peptide that shuts down RNA polymerase II
The false recovery is the reason people die. Anyone who ate wild mushrooms and became ill the NEXT DAY needs a hospital, however well they feel by the time they get there. Cooking, drying and freezing do nothing to the toxin.
Amatoxin poisoning, in fullThe specimen sheet, in examination order
01Cap
6 to 16 cm, greenish, olive, yellow-brown or occasionally almost white, usually with fine radiating fibres pressed into the surface. Slightly sticky when damp. Often paler at the margin than at the centre.
02Underside
Free white gills, crowded, staying white at every age.
03Stem, and the base
White, sometimes faintly banded, with a skirt-like ring that hangs loose high on the stem, and at the base a MEMBRANOUS SAC, the volva, which is often below ground.
04Flesh, cut
White, unchanging when cut.
05Spore print
White to cream
How to take one06Where it grows
On the ground with trees, above all oak, and readily with imported ornamental and nursery stock. Suburban lawns, parks and street trees are all normal habitat.
07Smell
Faint and sweetish when young; sickly and honeyed as it ages.
When to look
Typically Aug to Dec in the northern hemisphere. Fruiting swings by weeks with rainfall and by a month or more with latitude, so this is when to look rather than when it will be there.
Native to Europe, now widely established in North America, Australia and elsewhere, spreading with the roots of planted trees.
What is worth knowing about it
Responsible for the great majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide. Half a cap is enough to kill an adult. The toxin is not destroyed by cooking, drying, freezing or any preparation available in a kitchen, and symptoms are delayed long enough that people are often discharged from hospital feeling better while their liver is already failing.
Confused with
- Paddy straw mushroom
- Meadow mushroom
- Young puffballs
- Caesar's mushroom
This page tells you what to check. It does not tell you the mushroom in your hand is that species, and it cannot. If you are not certain, do not eat it. If you have already eaten something and feel unwell, contact a poison centre and keep an uncooked specimen.
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