1061
Mushroom ID
(mander.xyz)
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Looks like a destroying angel (e.g. Amanita virosa) to me. This and the death cap together account for the vast majority of mushroom poisonings in the world. Cooking it will not destroy the toxins, nor will acid. Symptoms tend to appear 5-24 hours after eating, too late to pump the stomach. Half a mushroom can be enough to kill you.
I don't recommend going out to pick mushrooms unless you know what you're doing. If you do, stay away from the white ones. You can still get terrible stomach cramps and diarrhea from other colors of mushrooms, but the white ones have the most dangerous species.
Easiest way to avoid problems I've heard is to never pick any mushroom with ribbed underside. If the underside looks like a sponge, it's usually safe to eat. At least where I'm from.
Might be valid advice for some regions, I don't know. But mushrooms tend to vary quite a bit in appearance. Sometimes ribbed species don't have very visible ribs, or younger mushrooms don't quite have all the characteristics of their mature form. If you really want to get into picking mushrooms, there's often local groups you can join with a resident expert who can tell you which ones are safe.
Rule of thumb with mushrooms is that these id tricks tend to be regional and not always accurate unfortunately. Nature is a bit more of a kaleidoscope.
Exactly. Don't trust a stranger on the internet to help you avoid death.
But do go to that really famous Facebook group if you suspect a poisoning for help with an ID. They've got a ton of experts and doctors use them lol.
Yeah those groups are great. I like the snake bite one also.
It's mostly true. Most of the poisonous mushrooms of central Europe are not "sponges".
The worst one I have found once is seldom lethal: Rubroboletus satanas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubroboletus_satanas
I guess people don't usually pick stuff that looks like that. Though there are similar ones that taste pretty good.
Toxic boletus usually taste really bad.