Recognising deadly mushrooms

This guide does not teach you to pick mushrooms for eating. Identifying edible mushrooms safely takes years of expert learning, and mistakes are often fatal. Its purpose is to help you recognise the deadliest kinds so you, and children, leave them alone.

Why mushrooms are so dangerous

• The deadliest mushrooms taste fine. Some people who survived said they were delicious.
• Cooking, drying or freezing does not destroy their poisons.
• Symptoms are often delayed by many hours or days. By then, the liver or kidneys may already be badly damaged.

Death cap

The death cap causes most mushroom poisoning deaths around the world.

• Cap is greenish, olive or yellowish, sometimes pale, and smooth.
• Gills underneath are white.
• A skirt-like ring around the upper stem.
• A cup or bag at the base of the stem, often hidden under the soil.
• Grows under trees, especially oaks, in late summer and autumn.

Symptoms usually start 6–24 hours after eating: vomiting and diarrhoea, then a short period where the person seems better, followed by liver failure.

Destroying angels

• Pure white all over: cap, gills, stem and ring.
• A cup at the base of the stem.
• Found in woodland.
• Contain the same poison as the death cap and act the same way.

They can be confused with white button-type mushrooms, especially when young.

Deadly webcaps

• Orange-brown to rusty brown caps and stems.
• Young ones have a fine, cobweb-like veil under the cap.
• Grow in conifer and mixed woodland.

Their poison attacks the kidneys. Symptoms can take two days to three weeks to appear, so the link to the meal is easily missed.

Funeral bell (Galerina)

• Small, brown, often in clusters on rotting wood.
• A thin ring on the stem.
• Contains the same poison as the death cap.

It can be mistaken for several small brown edible and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Simple rules

• Don't eat any wild mushroom unless an expert has checked it in person.
• Teach children never to touch or taste mushrooms they find.
• Many deadly mushrooms grow in parks and gardens, not just forests.

If someone may have eaten one

Call your local emergency number (112 in Europe and many other countries, 911 in North America) straight away, even if they feel well. Early treatment saves lives. Keep any leftover mushrooms, or a photo, and note when they were eaten. Don't wait for symptoms.

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