The world’s most poisonous mushroom is causing deaths and illnesses in California

One of the most poisonous mushrooms is blooming across California.

Thanks to an exceptionally wet December, death cap mushrooms — or Amanita phalloides — have proliferated along the Central Coast and in Northern California. As a result, there’s been a sudden uptick in the number of people getting sick and dying after accidentally eating the poisonous mushrooms found in the wild.

Death cap mushrooms are known to sprout across the state and thrive in shady, humid or moist environments under live oak and cultivated cork oak trees, my colleague Karen Garcia wrote recently.

When state public health officials first warned of the dangers of the death cap mushroom in December, significant clusters of reported illnesses had occurred in the Monterey and San Francisco Bay areas. Reported hospitalizations have since grown to include Alameda, Contra Costa, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties.

Public health officials issued a second warning last month, cautioning the public against foraging for wild mushrooms, noting that many people mistakenly have eaten the death cap, which when consumed can cause severe liver damage and, in some cases, death.

The California Department of Public Health reported 39 death cap-related illnesses, including four fatalities and three liver transplants, between Nov. 18 and Jan. 18.

The most recent death was reported on Jan. 27 by public health officials in Contra Costa County who confirmed that a 60-year-old man had died after eating wild mushrooms.

Here’s more from Karen on death cap mushrooms and symptoms you can expect after eating them.

People who have mistakenly consumed the death cap usually have been foraging for mushrooms in the wilderness, either alone or with a group, officials say.

Experts say that among the affected are monolingual speakers of Spanish, Chinese, Mandarin and Mixteco; some foragers have mistaken the death cap mushroom for edible fungi from their native countries.

“So they have a false sense of security in their knowledge, thinking they know what they’re doing, but that only applies to where they’re from,” said David Campbell, a mycophagist, or expert on mushroom consumption.

The San Francisco Mycological Society has been working closely with the state public health department to create a warning sign and fliers that include a QR code leading to more information in multiple languages. The handouts are intended to be distributed in recreational areas such as parks, nature preserves and hiking trails.

The poison from the death cap can result in delayed gastrointestinal symptoms that may not appear until six to 24 hours after eating it. Some early symptoms that can go away within a day include:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Abdominal pain
• Drop in blood pressure
• Fatigue
• Confusion

No amount of death cap is safe to consume.

Unless you’re familiar with your local environment, have an expert you can consult or are part of a mushroom or foraging club, mycologists throughout the state say you should not be eating wild mushrooms.

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Today’s great photo is from Times photographer Robert Gauthier at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Milan.

Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, Fast Break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
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