Edible
Meadow Mushroom
Agaricus campestris
Agaricus gills are pink when young and chocolate brown when mature, the spore print is dark brown, and there is no cup at the base.
Death Cap
Amanita phalloides
Deadly
Also called death cup.
The death cap is the mushroom behind most fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide. It has a greenish to olive cap, white gills, a ring and a white cup at the base. In North America it is introduced and most common under oaks in California and the Pacific Northwest.
The tell
Greenish to yellow-olive cap, white gills, a skirt-like ring, and a white sac-like cup around the base of the stem.
Field marks
What to look at
Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.
- Cap
- Rounded, then convex to flat, smooth and slightly shiny. Usually yellow-green to olive or bronze, darker at the center, sometimes pale or nearly white. Occasionally carries a patch of white veil tissue.
- Underside
- Gills white, crowded and free from the stem. They stay white and do not turn pink or brown.
- Stem
- White or tinged with the cap color, with a thin, white, skirt-like ring near the top that can tear away. The base is a rounded bulb wrapped in a white, membranous sac-like cup (volva), which is often buried in the soil.
- Flesh
- White and unchanging when cut. Smell faint when young, becoming sickly sweet or unpleasant with age.
- Spore print
- White.
- Size
- Cap 3 to 6 inches wide (7.5 to 15 cm); stem 3 to 6 inches tall (7.5 to 15 cm).
Where and when
Where and when it grows
- Habitat
- Under oaks, especially coast live oak in California, and under planted trees such as oaks, pines and chestnuts in parks, gardens and street plantings.
- Grows on
- Soil, mycorrhizal with the roots of living trees.
- Season
- Mainly early fall to mid-winter in California, and sporadically in summer in watered areas or under coastal fog drip; summer and fall elsewhere.
- Range
- Most common along the Pacific coast from California to British Columbia, with scattered introduced populations in the Northeast.
Lookalikes
What the death cap gets confused with
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
Paddy straw mushroom
Volvariella volvacea also grows from a cup and its gills are white at first, but they turn pink to brownish pink, its spore print is pink rather than white, and it has no ring. Unopened buttons of the two cannot be told apart. Death caps mistaken for this Asian edible have poisoned people in Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
Edible when pure white insideGem-Studded Puffball
Lycoperdon perlatum
An unopened death cap egg looks like a small white puffball. Cut top to bottom, the egg shows the outline of a cap, gills and stem, while a puffball is uniform white inside.
EdibleAmerican Caesar's Mushroom
Amanita jacksonii
Caesar's mushrooms have a bright red to orange cap, yellow gills and a yellow stem above a white cup. Their unopened eggs are white and show an orange cap when cut.
Edibility
What the field guides say
Deadly
The death cap contains amatoxins, which shut down protein production in liver and kidney cells. Symptoms usually begin 6 to 24 hours after the meal with severe vomiting, diarrhea and cramps, often followed by a day or two of apparent recovery before liver and kidney failure. Cooking, freezing and drying do not destroy amatoxins. Field guides record that half a cap can kill an adult.
This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.
FAQ
Questions about the death cap
How poisonous is the death cap mushroom?
Its amatoxins destroy liver and kidney cells, and field guides record that half a cap or less can kill an adult. It causes most mushroom poisoning deaths worldwide.
What are the symptoms of death cap poisoning?
Symptoms start 6 to 24 hours after eating, with severe vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. These often ease for a day or two before signs of liver failure appear. The delay means the toxin has already been absorbed by the time symptoms start.
Where do death caps grow in the US?
Mainly in California, especially under coast live oaks, and in the Pacific Northwest, where they were introduced on the roots of imported trees. Scattered populations also occur in the Northeast, usually under planted trees.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Amanita phalloides
MushroomExpert.com
- Amanita phalloides
Beaty Biodiversity Museum, University of British Columbia
- Amanita phalloides
MykoWeb, California Fungi
- Deathcap mushroom, Amanita phalloides
Australian National Botanic Gardens
Also on Mushrooms.id
Related species
Toxic lookalike
Common Earthball
Scleroderma citrinum
A hard, thick-skinned ball with a scaly yellow-brown surface that is purple-black inside, not white.
Inedible
Common Stinkhorn
Phallus impudicus
A white, spongy stalk topped by a head coated in olive-brown slime that smells of rotting meat.
Edible when pure white inside
Giant Puffball
Calvatia gigantea
A smooth white ball the size of a soccer ball or larger, solid and uniformly white inside with no trace of a cap, gills or stem.
Edible when pure white inside
Pear-Shaped Puffball
Apioperdon pyriforme
Small pear-shaped puffballs in dense clusters on rotting wood, joined at the base by white cords.
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