THE EAST BAY REGIONAL PARK DISTRICT recently issued an advisory regarding poisonous wild mushrooms, urging park-goers to keep themselves safe by avoiding collecting and consuming the fungi as the state faces the largest “super bloom” in decades.
Cases of poisoning have been reported throughout the Bay Area, even causing one death in Sonoma County, according to the California Poison Control System (CPCS), a statewide poisoning monitoring and response service, which reported dozens of cases of severe mushroom poisonings in December.
CPCS identified 35 hospitalized cases across Northern California and the Central Coast, spanning regions from Sonoma to San Luis Obispo, the agency said. Three people have died, and three more have required liver transplants.
“This is the most massive cluster of amatoxin cases I’ve seen in my 40 years in poison control,” Thomas Kearney, the acting executive director of the CPCS, told UC San Francisco in December.
Contra Costa County parks contain the wild mushrooms, causing these poisonings in abundance. Species like the death cap (Amanita phalloides) and the western North American destroying angel (Amanita ocreata) are the main culprits.
Mistaken for edible mushrooms
The death cap and western destroying angel are also commonly mistaken for edible mushrooms by foragers. Recent rains have spurred the spores and have likely created the deadly super blooms.
Death caps are characterized by their greenish-gray, medium-sized, umbrella-like appearance, with white gills beneath the cap, and a small ring on the white stem. The death cap mushroom is non-native to California. After being accidentally introduced by imported European cork oaks at the end of the 1930s, they have been slowly establishing themselves along the West Coast ever since.
Initial symptoms appear a mere six to 12 hours after consumption, involving diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and dehydration.
The western destroying angel mushroom has a white stem and cap, which may become ivory or slightly greenish with age. Its gills are located directly underneath the cap, and it is native to California.
The western destroying angel is associated almost exclusively with oak trees, forming a symbiotic relationship with them, growing from their roots.
Both mushrooms find their lethality in amatoxins, which are capable of inhibiting cellular processes in vital organs of mammals, particularly the liver. Amatoxins are heat-stable silent killers. Initial symptoms appear a mere six to 12 hours after consumption, involving diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and dehydration. At first, many people simply think they’ve caught a bad bug, leading some to believe they do not require medical attention. However, around the two- to three-day mark, heavy symptoms set in, with liver damage being the main offender.
Best to avoid all mushrooms
The most effective action park-goers can take against these mushrooms is to avoid them entirely. The East Bay Regional Park District urges parents to keep their children away from wild mushrooms that spring up along park trails, and pet owners are urged to keep their pets away from the mushrooms.
Any mushroom foraging is illegal in East Bay regional parks, and doing so comes with a slew of consequences ranging from fines to possible jail time.
If you or someone you know has eaten a poisonous mushroom, immediately call the CPCS poison hotline at 1-800-222-1222 for rapid support. Treatment becomes more difficult after symptoms start.
Westley Burnham is a 10th grader at El Cerrito High School in El Cerrito and a CCYJ reporter. This story originally appeared in CCSpin.