Beware the Poison Mushroom

Contents: About Mushrooms Related Services at Tang Center Additional Online Resources

About Mushrooms

"There are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters. But there are no old, bold mushroom hunters."

Each Spring and Fall, when the weather is warm and the ground moist, mushrooms crop up in large numbers around campus and in our neighborhoods. There are about 5,000 types of mushrooms in the United States. Most of the cases of mushroom poisoning are related to about 100 types and less than a dozen are considered deadly. Most mushrooms are more dangerous to young children, the aged and the very ill. Some people are allergic even to the safest mushrooms.

Every mushroom hunter should be familiar with the three most dangerous groups of fungi. There are the amanitas, the false morels and a catch-all category known as little brown mushrooms (LBMS). Mushrooms in these groups cause virtually all the fatal mushroom poisonings in the United States. Amanitas mushrooms account for 90% of mushroom related deaths and are the reason why there are no old, bold mushroom hunters. These types of mushrooms do grow in areas around the Berkeley campus. Several members of this group contain one of the deadliest poisons found in nature. One cap of a Destroying Angel (Amanita virosa) can kill a person.

The consequences of mushroom poisoning can range from a mild stomach ache, to severe physical distress, to death. Symptoms may not develop until several days after eating the wrong mushrooms.

A few precautions are in order:

• Don't add mushrooms found in the wild to your cooking unless you are positive that the mushrooms have been accurately identified by an expert and are safe to eat.
• Do not eat mushrooms that are rotting.
• Check your yard for mushrooms before letting children and pets outside.
• Teach children not to taste or touch any outdoor mushrooms.
• Call the Poison Center as soon as you suspect mushroom poisoning
  1-800-876-4766
  

Related services at the Tang Center

• Advice nurse and After Hours Assistance: (510) 643-7197
  
• Urgent Care Mon-Sat 8-4:30
  
• Tang Center Services for eligible patients only
  

Disclaimer: The information provided here is not intended to diagnose, treat or provide a second opinion on any health problem or disease. It is meant to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between an individual and his/her clinician.

Last revised: February, 2005

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