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The most poisonous mushrooms are sometimes confusingly similar to edible mushrooms. The consequences of ignorance of amateur mushroom pickers can be very serious, because poisonous fungi lead to irreversible damage to the liver and disturbance of heart action and respiration, which can consequently lead to death. Check in the PHOTO GALLERY which mushrooms are the most poisonous, where they can be found and how to distinguish them from similar edible mushrooms.
According to the data from the publication prepared by specialists from the Provincial Sanitary and Epidemiological Station in Poznań (Mycology Department) and the Information Center of the State Forests, the most poisonous fungi, due to the content of poisonous substances of various methods and levels of toxic effect on the human body , we divide into:
- deadly poisonous fungiwhich damage mainly the liver and kidneys and then other parenchymal organs (e.g. spleen, heart). They contain specific venoms, such as: amanitin, phalloidin, giromitrin, orelanin. This group of fungi includes: toadstool, venomous toadstool, green toadstool, spring toadstool, chestnut leaf mushroom, red curlew and bearded curlew;
- poisonous mushroomswhich act on the nervous system. Due to the toxic content of muscarine, they irritate the central nervous system and the parasympathetic system, which leads to the so-called muscarinic symptoms (sweating, drooling, lacrimation, constriction of the pupils, slower heart rate and difficulty breathing). This group of fungi includes: shreds (e.g. brick shreds), venomous (whitewashed) and brook funnels, red and spotted toadstools, bay leaf apricot, curled cow (alder), beam buttermilk, reddening tuft (garden variety), blackberry.
Red fly agaric, due to its characteristic appearance, cannot be confused with any edible mushroom, therefore poisoning occurs very rarely. However, parents should be especially careful during mushroom picking, because the red fly agaric is especially dangerous for young children - if eaten raw, it produces strong muscarinic symptoms of poisoning. It's good to know thatThe red toadstool has an odorless flesh with a mild taste.
Read also:
- mushroom picking kit
- Mushroom poisoning. Do you have these symptoms? It could be mushroom poisoning
- Poisoning by edible mushrooms. When can edible mushrooms be harmful?
- Poisoning with satanic boletus - symptoms. First aid in case of poisoning with "Satan"
Poisonous and edible mushrooms similar to them
1. Toadstool
Toadstool, or greenish, onion agaric, green bract, has a greenish hat, darker in the middle. Gills covered with a white cover in youth, creamy-greenish with age. The body is white with a greenish tinge, embedded in a protruding white scabbard, has a white ring in the upper part and a zigzag pattern below it. White flesh, does not change color when damaged. The most poisonous. It must not be torn off! It contains amatoxin that permanently damages the liver and other organs. Symptoms occur after 8-12 hours.
Where is it growing?Toadstool grows from July to October, both in the vicinity of oaks, beeches and pines.
May be confused with : green goose, greenish dove.
How to tell them apart?The entire fruiting body of a green goose is yellow-green. The stem is cylindrical and more massive than the long stem of the stinkhorn. Its gills are yellow-green. In addition, the green goose grows most often in sands.
In turn, the greenish dove does not have a ring under the hat. In addition, its characteristic feature is the cracked surface divided into plots (this occurs only on older fruiting bodies). Its shaft is straight and cylindrical; does not have a ring, tuber and scabbard.
2. Venomous fly agaric
Venomous fly agaric, in other words: spotted or leopard toadstool, motley agaric, spotted fly agaric, has a white, yellowing hat with age, initially ovoid, then bell-conical, up to 10 cm in diameter. The cream-white gills are initially covered with a membranous sheath. It is embedded in the vagina, full white shaft (height up to 15 cm) with a ring (remains of the casing), covered with fibrous scales, empty in old age. The white flesh does not change color when cut. It has an unpleasant odor reminiscent of chlorine. Deadly poisonous, must not be tasted to test the taste.
Where is it growing?The venomous fly agaric fructifies from June to September, most often in coniferous forests.
May be confused with : field mushroom and spring goose (also known as a spring goose).
How do you tell them apart?Unliketoadstool, mushrooms do not have a tuber and a mobile vagina at the base of the stem and whitish gills (in mushrooms the gills are gray with age).
On the other hand, the Majówka goose has a relatively thick, short and creamy-white stem, without a ring.
3. Fly Agaric
Hat with a striped border, brown-yellow or brown-gray, covered with whitish patches, with white blades (in mature specimens it reaches a diameter of 12 cm) on a white shaft (6-15 cm high and 1-2 cm thick), at a young age, with a hollow age, with an elongated bulb at the base and the remains of a gill cover in the form of rings. The white, crumbly flesh smells of raw potatoes and radish and has a sweetish flavor. It is deadly poisonous, containing the same toxins as the red toadstool. The symptoms of poisoning are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hallucinations, convulsions.
Where does it grow?In deciduous forests (less often in coniferous forests), from June to October. It occurs singly or in small groups.
May be confused with : czubajką kia.
How to distinguish them?The Czubajka kite has a light beige hat with darker (usually brown) patches. A characteristic feature of the mushroom is a hump in the center of the hat. In addition, at the top of the shank, which is brown in a zig-zag pattern, there is a movable ring.
4. Edged helmet
The hat is convex at first, and in older models it becomes flat and reaches a diameter of up to 5 cm. The color of the mushroom varies between pale beige, honey and yellow-brown. It is worth knowing that the cap of the mushroom becomes brighter from the top as it dries up. The dark brown, cylindrical shaft reaches a height of 2-8 cm and has a ring under which there are oblong filaments without scales. The flesh smells like flour and is yellowish.
Where is it growing?The fungus is a saprotroph, therefore it grows on trunks of deciduous and coniferous trees. It can also be found in the forest litter. It fructifies from August to the end of autumn.
May be confused with:variable scaly.
How to tell them apart?Variable finch is darker (brown or cinnamon brown), has remaining scales (which are on the leathery ring at the top of the stem) and does not smell like flour.
5. Red ragweed
The brick ragweed is white, then a straw-cream hat (3-7 cm in diameter) changes color with age or after damage to brick red, at the beginning conical with a folded edge, with time spread out with a folded edge, it cracks with age radiating. Gills white, then olive-reddish, turn red when damaged. Stem (measuresusually 4-6 cm) white, full, darkens to cinnabar with age, white flesh, staining red when cut, has a sweet, pleasant, fruity aroma. Deadly poisonous, contains a lot of muscarin, also present in some toadstools.
Where is it growing?The fungus fruits from May to July not only in deciduous forests and parks (most often under beech trees), but also in gardens and even cemeteries.
May be confused with : spring caterpillar and field mushroom.
How to tell them apart?Mushrooms have densely arranged gills from pink to brown-black.
Spring goose has a different, mealy smell, does not have a conical hat and does not turn red when damaged.
6. Funnel poisonous (bleached)
Bleached funnel has a flat hat with a diameter of 2-5 cm and a cylindrical shaft with dimensions: height 2-4 cm, thickness 4-6 mm (white to flesh-colored). The gills are white or gray-white, dense, tight. A characteristic feature of a venomous funnel are fleshy stains on the hat. It is worth knowing that young specimens are all white.
Where is it growing?The mushroom grows from August to November on the edges of deciduous forests, arable meadows and the edges of roads.
May be confused with : roadside cheese.
How to tell them apart?The core of the heartwood is pale brown and its gills are very rare, whitish, and ocher (yellowish or orange-brown) after rain.
7. Chestnut chanterelle
Chestnut chanterella has a red-brown or brown-red, irregularly folded hat that looks like a brain. It is fused with a crooked, short, almost invisible shaft. The mushroom can be up to 12 cm high and 15 cm wide.
Where is it growing?In deciduous forests (usually on the roots of trees and stumps) and where trees are felled, usually from March to May.
May be confused with : Edible Morel.
How to tell them apart?Smardz has an irregularly spherical (ovoid or conical) cap (head) with a characteristic surface (pitted ribs); usually beige or ocher. In addition, the morel has a brighter and longer shaft than the lichen.
8. Bearded curtain
Initially, the bearded veil has a purple spherical hat, which becomes convex over time and turns light ocher. Older specimens turn silvery white. The club-shaped body, which does not exceed 10 cm in height, has a purple, shiny, cobweb-shaped body.veil. A characteristic feature of the curtain is the unpleasant smell of acetylene.
Where is it growing?It can be found from early summer to late autumn in coniferous and deciduous forests.
Can be confused with : a capstone, a naked gill.
How to distinguish them?Both the cap and glaucoma do not have a veil and no unpleasant smell.
9. Wierushka sinus
The apricot hat, which can reach up to 18 cm in diameter, is shiny and convex. It is ocher, ivory or gray-brown in color. The gills are sinus-attached (hence the name of the fungus). The stem reaches 12 cm in height. The mushroom flesh has a characteristic flour smell.
Where is it growing?in deciduous forests (usually under beeches and oaks), from late May to early autumn.
May be confused with:spring picnic, saddle plate and foggy funnel.
How to distinguish them?flesh abovementioned mushrooms do not smell like flour and their hats are not shiny, only dull.
10. Bundle buttermilk
Band buttermilk, or poison bald, has a sulfur-yellow hat with gills of a similar color, with a brick center, first bell-shaped, then spread out with a flat hump and a tucked edge, a sulfur-yellow shank, brownish at the bottom, brownish, empty. The yellow flesh does not change color when damaged. Causes severe intestinal disorders 2-3 hours after consumption.
Where is it growing?On rotting trunks of conifers and deciduous trees (usually from May to December).
May be confused with:mild buttermilk
How to tell them apart?Honey buttermilk is more rusty orange. Bunched buttermilk also differs from it in an extremely bitter taste.
Other poisonous mushrooms
- Conical humidifier
In other words: blackening or slender dungeon, horse agaric, has a bright orange hat, with age turning black, conical, often irregularly divided into lobes, with white gills turning gray-orange and black. Yellowish cylindrical body, turning black with age. Pale flesh with a mild odor. When eaten in large quantities, it causes digestive disorders.
- Krowiak rolled up
Krowiak rolled up, otherwise alder, alder, cow's mouth, pig, has a rusty-brown or olive-brown hat, with age spread out, sunken in the middle, shiny and sticky, initially cream, later red-brown, converging to the full stem. Yellowish or rusty brown flesh has a pleasant fruity effectsmell. Compressed areas turn brown. Immediately after eating, gastrointestinal disturbances appear, and fungal toxins accumulate in the body, damaging the liver. Eating a tucked krowiak a few times can lead to death.
May be confused with : saffron (spruce milk), the mature specimens of which have a hollow stem and the compressed gills turn green.
- Pampering dove
In other words: agaric, poisonous raw food, bitter tart, dog mushroom. It has a bright red, cherry red, aged pinkish hat, spread out with white or light cream gills, mounted on a white cylindrical stem, with a wadded or hollow center in the middle. The flesh is white or pinkish, does not change color when cut, and has a pleasant, fruity aroma and a strong burning flavor. It is not deadly poisonous, but it causes stomach pain, nausea and vomiting.
- Mushroom mushroom clean
Otherwise: violetish mushroom. It has a small, up to 4 cm, calistilic, purplish or gray-brown hat, flat with a small hump in the center. The gray-white gills are mounted on a whitish or gray-violet, hollow, slender stem. The watery flesh exudes a strong radish odor. It causes gastrointestinal disturbances. Contains dangerous psychotropic substances!
- Tiger goose
He has a dark gray, ashen or gray-beige hat with whitish, yellowish gills with age, with drops of watery discharge in his youth, mounted on a cylindrical, massive, white, full shaft. Cream flesh, does not change color when damaged. Not very distinct taste and smell. It causes abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness from 15 minutes to 2 hours after ingestion; symptoms last up to several hours, sometimes hospitalization is necessary.
- Boletus boletus
Satan's boletus, also known as Satan, satanic, dragon's head, poisoner, devil, has a hemispherical, whitish hat in a light or silver-gray shade, with tubes of orange-yellow or carmine-red shade, mounted on a barrel-shaped, reddish shaft. The whitish flesh turns blue when cut, has no distinct taste, and ripe specimens have an unpleasant smell of rotting onion. Severely poisonous raw.
May be confused with : boletus. Satan differs from him in a brighter hat, a reddish color of the shaft and the fact that the damaged flesh turns blue.
- Common brownskin
In other words: lemon or fetid husk, potato puffball, false truffle, wart, bull's eggs.The crowskin has a straw or brownish-yellow spherical fruiting body with a rudimentary stem, hard and heavy; the surface is cracked into large plots, becomes scaly with age. Over time, the cover of the fruiting body tears, releasing spores. The interior is white, turning pink with time, graying, becoming dirty lilac or black with a gray tinge like grated poppy seeds, and at the end it turns into a powdered brown mass of spores. Young mushrooms have a strong spicy smell, the old ones - rather unpleasant, reminiscent of city gas. The most poisonous are ripe fruiting bodies.
Can be confused with : edible puffballs, which are much softer, and with truffles that unfold entirely underground.
- King Toadstool
Hat in shades of light brown, covered with patches, initially bulbous, closed, with time hemispherical and spread, in mature fruiting bodies with a notched edge, white or creamy-yellow gills, initially partially covered with a yellowish cover. The body is whitish or white-yellowish with a distinct white or yellowish ring with yellowish serration. The flesh does not change color when cut, has a slightly perceptible taste and smell. It contains the same toxic substances as the red fly agaric and is similarly poisonous.
May be confused with : similar to kani's crested tip, which differs from it with a scaly stem and a nutty smell. Included in the red book of Polish mushrooms in danger of extinction.
- Red fly agaric
Red fly agaric, in other words: real fly agaric, fly agaric, fly agaric, has a hat of intense red or light orange color with characteristic white patches, initially hemispherical, later spread out, with white gills. White or yellowish body, cylindrical on a bulbous base, has a distinct ring of similar color. White flesh, odorless, mild in taste, does not change color when damaged. Poisonous, contains toxins: muscimol, ibutic acid and small amounts of muscarin. Adult poisoning is rarely fatal, but for children the consequences are dire.
The text uses excerpts from the article by Joanna Anczura from the monthly "Zdrowie".