10 Most Poisonous Mushroom

(Tony) #1


Another deadly mushroom with a deadly name. The webcap is
a particularly innocuous looking mushroom similar in appear-
ance to many edible species. In fact it is incredibly poisonous
and eating it will possibly kill you; if not within weeks at a later
date when your kidneys pack in.


This is what happened in the case of The Horse Whisperer au-
thor Nicholas Evans. Along with his wife and two other guests
they ate deadly webcaps that they had collected mistaking
them for something edible. Whilst they all survived Evans was
put on kidney dialysis and all were told they would need kidney
transplants in the future.


They were lucky. The toxin orellanine is very potent, up there
with arsenic and with no known antidote. It is said that one can
be poisoned just by tasting and spitting out a small piece of
this mushroom.


Besides kidney failure other symptoms of the poisoning are
reportedly flu-like. They don’t appear for several days and can
go on for weeks.

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