Fungus Fact Friday

Tagged: poisonous

#125: Hypholoma sublateritium, the Brick Cap 3

Fungus Fact

#125: Hypholoma sublateritium, the Brick Cap

“Is this mushroom edible?” What a difficult question to answer.  The world of edible mushrooms is littered with lookalikes, various degrees of edibility, mushrooms that are edible only under certain conditions, and mushrooms that no one has assessed for edibility.  For Hypholoma sublateritium, the question is even more complicated.  There is no consensus on whether or not Brick Caps are edible.  North American field guides are divided on the issue and European field guides usually list these mushrooms as inedible or poisonous.  In my local mushroom club, they are considered edible and are a welcome find in the late fall, when it is usually slim pickings for mushrooms.  Because of this ambiguity, community is an essential part of mushroom hunting (despite its culture of secrecy and competition).  If you are serious about mushroom hunting, you should be involved with a local mushroom club to ensure that you learn information about...

#124: Galerina marginata, the Deadly Galerina [Archived] 2

Archived

#124: Galerina marginata, the Deadly Galerina [Archived]

Note: this is an archived post.  Read the current version of this post here. If you are collecting for the table, this is one little brown mushroom (LBM) that you should definitely be familiar with. Most LBMs go unnoticed because they are heard to spot and are usually too small to consider worth eating.  The “Deadly Galerina” is therefore usually not dangerous on its own.  The real danger from this mushroom comes when it is accidentally collected along with a group of edible mushrooms.  Galerina marginata contains amatoxins, which are also found in such infamous species as Destroying Angels (Amanita virosa complex, FFF#050) and Death Caps (Amanita phalloides, FFF#051).  In England, G. marginata goes by the beautifully ominous name, “Funeral Bell.”  Unfortunately for me, people in the United States prefer the much blander common name, “Deadly Galerina.”

#115: Neotyphodium coenophialum, Tall Fescue Endophyte 1

Fungus Fact

#115: Neotyphodium coenophialum, Tall Fescue Endophyte

This fungus spends its entire life inside Tall Fescue, a common livestock feed grass. While it is beneficial to the plant, it makes animals that feed on the grass sick.  In the United States, the fungus costs the beef industry from $600 million to $1 billion or more every year.

#109: Rubroboletus satanas, Satan’s Bolete or Devil’s Mushroom 0

Fungus Fact

#109: Rubroboletus satanas, Satan’s Bolete or Devil’s Mushroom

If you need a mushroom centerpiece for your Halloween party, then this is it. This large mushroom has a bulbous, bright red, reticulated base that easily invokes demonic fires (hence its common and scientific names).  As a bonus, Satan’s Bolete has a fetid odor – quite fitting, don’t you think?  Unfortunately, this mushroom is rather rare.

#100: Uncommon Mushroom Toxins 0

Fungus Fact

#100: Uncommon Mushroom Toxins

In addition to the eight common types of mushroom toxins, mushrooms produce a number of other compounds that are toxic to humans. The North American Mycological Association lists eight of these less common toxins/syndromes.  Many of these are limited to a few, closely-related species and are therefore not as frequently observed as the eight types described previously.

#099: Gastrointestinal Irritants 1

Fungus Fact

#099: Gastrointestinal Irritants

Mushrooms produce a wide variety of compounds, most of which have not been studied. Many of these cause irritation to the gastrointestinal tract.  Because this group of toxins is so varied, I doubt that scientists will ever bother to catalog all the compounds involved.  As a result, most mushroom toxins will likely remain unclassified and lumped into the “gastrointestinal irritants”

#098: Psilocybin and Psilocin 7

Fungus Fact

#098: Psilocybin and Psilocin

These two toxins are the active chemicals in hallucinogenic mushrooms (often called “magic mushrooms” or “‘shrooms”). Psilocybin and psilocin belong to the LSD family of chemicals, but they are smaller than LSD and occur naturally in mushrooms.  These compounds can be found in a variety o f mushrooms, including many species in the genera Psilocybe, Conocybe, Panaeolus, and Gymnopilus.  Most often, the mushrooms eaten for their hallucinogenic effects belong to the genus Psilocybe, which lends its name to psilocybin and psilocin.

#097: Ibotenic Acid and Muscimol 1

Fungus Fact

#097: Ibotenic Acid and Muscimol

These two mushroom toxins impact the central nervous system and result in symptoms akin to alcohol intoxication. They are the primary toxins in the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, and are responsible for the psychoactive affects of that mushroom.

#095: Coprine 1

Fungus Fact

#095: Coprine

Coprine is a fascinating molecule that is technically not poisonous. So why is it listed along with other mushroom toxins?  Because it can result in poisoning, but only if you consume a completely different toxin afterward, namely alcohol.  If you drink alcohol after eating a coprine-containing mushroom, you can expect to experience flushing of the face and neck, a rapid and/or irregular heartbeat, headache, nausea, and vomiting, and you may also experience difficulty breathing and tingling or numbness in the limbs or hands.  These symptoms last as long as the alcohol is in your system, which may be a while since coprine interferes with the body’s process of removing alcohol.

#094: Muscarine 1

Fungus Fact

#094: Muscarine

Muscarine is a toxin found primarily in small brown or white mushrooms in the genera Clitocybe and Inocybe. It is also found in other mushrooms, including the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, but at much lower concentrations.  Muscarine was initially isolated in the 1860’s by the German chemists Oswald Schmiedeberg and Richard Koppe, who were trying to research the psychoactive properties of the Fly Agaric.  They isolated a compound – which they named muscarine after the Fly Agaric’s species name – that decreased heart rate in frogs and could even cause cardiac arrest when high concentrations were used.