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Never eat a wild mushroom identified from a website. This one helps you rule things out. It cannot rule anything in.

Mr Mushroom
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Deadly

Orellanine poisoning

Orellanine

Onset after the meal

2 days to 3 weeks

Later than six hours, which is the line that matters. A delayed onset means an organ is already being attacked, and it is an emergency even if the person feels well by the time they are seen.

Attacks

The kidneys

What it does

Nothing at all for days. Then thirst, heavy urination, then falling urine output, nausea, loin pain and the signs of kidney failure.

How it runs

By the time symptoms appear the damage is done. Serious cases end in permanent dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Treatment

Hospital and renal support. There is no antidote, and the window in which anything preventive could have been done has closed long before anyone feels ill.

The catch

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.

Species that cause it

This is reference material, not clinical guidance and not a substitute for a poison centre. If somebody is unwell after eating a wild mushroom, call one now, tell them the interval between the meal and the first symptom, and keep an uncooked specimen.