Deadly
Fool's webcap
Cortinarius orellanus
The character that does the work
As with all webcaps: rusty spores and a cobwebby partial veil. Neither tells you which webcap, and that is the problem.
Orellanine
The longest delay in mycology by a wide margin, and it means the meal is almost never connected to the illness. Anyone with unexplained kidney failure who forages should tell their doctor so, even about a meal a fortnight old.
Orellanine poisoning, in fullThe specimen sheet, in examination order
01Cap
3 to 8 cm, warm foxy red-brown, dry and finely scaly, usually without a strong umbo.
02Underside
Well-spaced gills, cinnamon to rust.
03Stem, and the base
Tapering downward, yellow-brown, without strong banding.
04Flesh, cut
Yellowish.
05Spore print
Brown to rust
How to take one06Where it grows
Broadleaf woodland, especially oak and beech, on poor soils.
When to look
Typically Aug to Nov 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.
Europe, scattered.
What is worth knowing about it
Responsible for the best-documented mass orellanine poisoning on record, in Poland in the 1950s. Along with C. rubellus it is the reason experienced foragers treat the entire genus as off limits: several thousand species, most of them undescribed, separated by microscopic characters, and a few of them silently destroy kidneys a fortnight later.
Confused with
- Chanterelle
- Edible webcaps
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.
Others in this group