Amanita Verosa also called "The Destroying Angel" mushroomPosted on 11/27/2008 7:31:13 PM PST by Coleus
The three, who live in Franklin Township, have been hospitalized with liver toxicity; one is in critical condition and may need a transplant. Bruce Ruck, director of drug information and professional education at the New Jersey Poison Control Center in Newark, identified the victims as a mother and her daughter and son-in-law, all Asian Indians. The mother is in critical condition and being evaluated for a liver transplant at University Hospital in Newark; the other two are at Princeton University Medical Center. "They picked and ate wild mushrooms and wound up with liver toxicity," Ruck said. Officials from the poison center have been unable to interview the mother and are uncertain where or when the mushrooms were picked, Ruck said. All three victims, however, fell ill within the past two days, he said.
Ruck said poisonous mushrooms often are indistinguishable from edible varieties, especially to an untrained eye. "At this time of the year, people see mushrooms growing on the lawn or on the side of the road and they think they can eat them, but they can't," he said. "You can have two mushrooms growing side by side and people think they're the same mushroom, but they're not." Immigrants can be especially susceptible, he said, if they are accustomed to picking and eating wild mushrooms in their native countries. "Because the mushroom may look like something they ate at one time, they think it's same mushroom, but it's not," Ruck said. "The bottom line is we just don't want people picking and eating wild mushrooms." But Peter Kothari, a leader in New Jersey's Indo-American community, said Indians have no particular propensity to pick and eat wild mushrooms in their homeland.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Amanita Verosa also called "The Destroying Angel" mushroomThe History channel had a program on today about mushrooms, guess they should have watched it.
Seems to be a real problem among Asian immigrants. I think I read that there are no poisonous mushrooms in Asia or something.
The problem Asians have is they confuse their edible straw-paddy mushroom with our death cap mushroom.
Asia has poisonus mushrooms.
We’ve picked wild mushrooms for years. Since I was a kid. Have them in gravy every Thanksgiving. Yes, you have to have an eye for what you’re picking.
We had a cat that could find patches of good mushrooms.
My mother and I used to pick morels all the time. But that was years ago and now I’d be scared to try that. Funny how it was so routine and we took it for granted. We never hunted for any mushroom except morels.
Can mushrooms of other varieties mix with known mushroom patches?
I suppose it’s possible but I’ve not seen it happen.
Usually each variety is found growing only where it’s own peculiar requirements are met. The following may be useful:
“Mushroom Tutorial
What Exactly is a Mushroom?
Mushrooms are a type of fungus. There are many different kinds of fungi, including molds and crusts, as well as more developed types that have a stalk and a cap. Fungi are distinct from plants because they do not possess chlorophyll, the green pigment that allows plants to manufacture sugar from the sun’s energy; they need to absorb their food from the environment in which they live.
Fungi use fibers called hyphae (that as a group are referred to as mycelium), to take in food. The mycelium can remain dormant under the ground for many seasons, similar to the roots of plants. Each hypha that is sent out makes its way through earth/wood/plant matter until it reaches the surface.
During the organism’s specific growing season, the hyphae develop into mature structures capable of reproducing spores. The structure that you normally see above the ground is the part of the mushroom that is producing and dispersing spores.
Each spore is a single cell that is capable of sending out a hypha that will develop into a group and form its own mycelium. If the hypha of one spore meets up with the hypha of another, it begins the sexual process of spore prodcution through special spore-producing cells.
Well, I don’t know the names. We just used to call them button mushrooms. But yes, we knew what we were looking for and what was bad. And we picked something my uncle called spungoli’s. The caps on those were narrow and perforated.
Now you can purchase grow kits that you actually insert into holes of an old log and voila. Safe mushrooms in the wild. I’m thinking that might be slightly better than the canned ones from China. ;)
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