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by pmoriarty 1798 days ago
"There are mushrooms that taste very bad, and (in the worst case) will cause stomach upset (vomiting) but nothing that will kill you outright."

This is false and dangerous misinformation!

Mushrooms can certainly kill you, and people have died from eating poisonous mushrooms.

Just one example, from the Amanita[1] genus:

"Several members of the section Phalloidieae are notable for their toxicity, containing toxins known as amatoxins, which can cause liver failure and death. These include the death cap A. phalloides; species known as destroying angels, including A. virosa, A. bisporigera and A. ocreata; and the fool's mushroom, A. verna."

"More recently, a series in the subgenus Lepidella has been found to cause acute kidney failure, including A. smithiana of northwestern North America, A. pseudoporphyria of Japan, and A. proxima of southern Europe."

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita#Toxicity

1 comments

He was noting in his specific locale, where it's entirely possible that there aren't any toxic/poisonous variants.
I'm actually kind of skeptical that anywhere exists with no toxic mushrooms. I know in my region there are many. Probably 100+ and at least 5-10 very common ones.