Poisonous mushrooms

As the English writer of humorous fantasy books Terry Pratchett perfectly summarized: 'All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once.'

These fungi are the poisonous mushrooms. Not every poisonous mushroom is equally dangerous. How dangerous a particular mushroom is, depends on the type of poison and the amount of poison it contains. For example, one type of mushroom may be fatal and another may not, even though both types contain the same poison, but in a different dose. Even some edible mushrooms can actually contain some poison.

With a number of edible mushrooms, you will receive the warning: 'Do not eat them raw.' These mushrooms contain a small amount of toxins that cannot withstand heat. If you cook or bake them, they are safe for consumption. In addition, some mushrooms can’t be eaten in combination with alcohol. Such a mushroom contains coprine, for example. Coprine is a mycotoxin and it inhibits an enzyme that plays a role in the metabolizing of alcohol. If you eat mushrooms that contain coprine with, for example, a glass of wine, your metabolism can’t break down the wine well and you may get an alcohol flush reaction. In that case, your face turns red and you feel nauseous.

We still don't know all the mushrooms on our planet and to us unknown poisons probably exist. Some types of poison cause mild gastrointestinal illnesses, such as nausea and diarrhea, but other poisons inevitably lead to death. Currently, we have an antidote against the potentially fatal muscarine, namely atropine. However, no antidotes exist for other deadly poisons such as alpha-amanitin, which causes fatal liver damage, and orellanine, which leads to kidney failure. Consuming mushrooms which contain these types of toxins almost always results in death.

Why would you even eat a poisonous mushroom?

The issue lies in misidentifying wild mushrooms. Many edible mushrooms have poisonous lookalikes. Oftentimes people think they have picked an edible mushroom, after which they prepare it and eat it at home. Only after the first symptoms arise, it becomes evident that a mistake has occurred. By that time, it’s often too late. To prevent these kinds of deadly mistakes, Switzerland has introduced official mushroom inspectors. Mushroom pickers can get their basket filled with mushrooms checked by these inspectors and poisonous mushrooms are taken out. In 2022, these mushroom inspectors removed no less than 54 kilograms of deadly mushrooms from people’s baskets.

Poisonous mushrooms had to be in Kallanpa & Kallaquinto. We painted 5 different poisonous mushrooms. 2 mushrooms have 1 skull, 1 mushroom has 2 skulls and the remaining 2 mushrooms have 3 skulls. The number of skulls depicts the true toxicity of each mushroom.

#mushrooms #kallanpa #kallaquinto #forest