The Golden Chanterelle may be the state’s new official mushroom, but the East Bay Regional Park District is reminding residents that some fungi are best appreciated for their beauty, not taste.  

The park district sent out its annual wild mushroom warning Friday last week as winter rains spur spores and mushrooms begin popping up.  

There are two kinds that both people and pets need especially avoid, and their names say it all: the death cap (Amanita phalloides) and the western destroying angel (Amanita ocreata).  

Both of these mushrooms contain amatoxins, which are molecules that are deadly to most animals — even primates like us. Symptoms don’t appear until up to 12 hours later, making them a great plot element in an Agatha Christie novel but causing extreme gastrointestinal distress that progresses to liver and kidney failure to anyone who ingests them. 

According to Dave Mason, public information supervisor for the park district, these species are responsible for most cases of mushroom poisonings in California. 

Toxic mushrooms like the death cap and western destroying angel, containing lethal amatoxins, are primarily linked to oak trees, thriving wherever oak roots are present, according to the East Bay Regional Park District’s annual wild mushroom warning. (Photo courtesy Rob Young/Flickr, CC BY)

Both are mostly associated with oak trees and can be found anywhere that oak roots are present.  

The death cap is a medium to large mushroom that typically has a greenish-gray cap, according to Mason. It has white gills, a white ring around its stem, and a large white sac at the base of its stem. Not native to California, it was introduced to North America by being attached to the roots of European cork oaks and is now “steadily colonizing the West Coast,” said Mason.

As for the western destroying angel, it is native to the state but nonetheless just as poisonous as the death cap. It is medium to large with a creamy white cap, white gills, a white ring around its stem that can disappear with age, and it enjoys the company of oak trees exclusively. It usually appears late winter and into spring.  

Anyone gamboling through the East Bay Regional Parks should heed the warnings about these mushrooms, but Mason reminds all park visitors that the removal of any mushrooms is prohibited, edible or not.  

To learn more about other poisonous mushrooms in our area, visit the park district’s website or visit the Tilden Fungus Fair in late January.  

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.