Edible
Meadow Mushroom
Agaricus campestris
Agaricus gills are pink when young and chocolate brown when mature, the spore print is dark brown, and the stem base has no cup.
Destroying Angel
Amanita bisporigera
Deadly
Also called eastern destroying angel, angel of death.
The destroying angel is a pure white mushroom of eastern North American woods and one of the deadliest fungi on the continent. It contains the same amatoxins as the death cap. Its white gills and the cup hidden at the base separate it from white edible mushrooms.
The tell
Pure white all over, with white gills, a skirt-like ring, and a white sac-like cup around a bulb at the base.
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
- Egg-shaped at first, then convex and flat. Smooth, pure white, sometimes faintly cream at the center, and slightly sticky when wet.
- Underside
- Gills white, crowded and free from the stem or nearly so. They stay white at all ages.
- Stem
- Tall, white and smooth to slightly shaggy, with a thin, white, skirt-like ring near the top that can collapse or disappear. The base is a bulb enclosed in a white, membranous sac-like cup, often buried in soil or leaf litter.
- Flesh
- White and unchanging when cut. Smell faint.
- Spore print
- White.
- Size
- Cap 1.5 to 4 inches wide (4 to 10 cm); stem 3 to 6 inches tall (7.5 to 15 cm).
Where and when
Where and when it grows
- Habitat
- Hardwood and mixed forests, especially with oaks, beech, birch and pines, and on lawns near those trees.
- Grows on
- Soil, mycorrhizal with the roots of living trees.
- Season
- Summer through fall.
- Range
- Eastern and central North America, east of the Rocky Mountains.
Lookalikes
What the destroying angel gets confused with
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
EdibleHorse Mushroom
Agaricus fissuratus
Horse mushrooms also have a large white cap and ring, but the gills turn from grayish pink to chocolate brown, the flesh smells of anise, and there is no cup at the base.
Edible when pure white insideGem-Studded Puffball
Lycoperdon perlatum
An unopened destroying angel 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.
White dapperling
Leucoagaricus leucothites is also white with white gills and a white spore print, but it grows in grass and has no cup at the base. Its gills often turn pinkish with age.
Edibility
What the field guides say
Deadly
The destroying angel contains amatoxins, the same toxins as the death cap. They shut down protein production in liver and kidney cells. Symptoms usually begin 6 to 24 hours after the meal with severe vomiting and diarrhea, often followed by a brief apparent recovery and then liver and kidney failure. Cooking, freezing and drying do not destroy amatoxins.
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 destroying angel
Is the destroying angel mushroom deadly?
Yes. It contains amatoxins, which destroy liver and kidney cells, and field guides list it among the deadliest mushrooms in North America. Symptoms are delayed by 6 to 24 hours, so the toxin is already absorbed when illness begins.
What does a destroying angel look like?
It is pure white: white cap, white gills, white stem with a thin white ring, and a white sac-like cup around the base. The cup is often buried and can be missed if the mushroom is snapped off at ground level.
Where do destroying angels grow?
In hardwood and mixed forests of eastern and central North America, often near oaks, beech, birch and pines, and on lawns next to those trees. They fruit from summer through fall.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Amanita bisporigera
MushroomExpert.com
- Destroying Angel
Missouri Department of Conservation
- Amanita bisporigera
Index Fungorum
Also on Mushrooms.id
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American Caesar's Mushroom
Amanita jacksonii
Bright red to orange cap with a lined edge, yellow gills, a yellow stem and ring, and a thick white sac-like cup at the base.
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Photo coming
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Free gills that turn from pink to chocolate brown, a ring on the stem, and no cup at the base.
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Photo coming
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Shrimp of the Woods
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Whitish, lumpy, irregular balls with marbled pinkish insides, growing near honey mushrooms.
Toxic raw
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Dull reddish brown cap with grayish to pinkish warts, and flesh that slowly turns pinkish red where it is cut, bruised or eaten by insects.
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