Why Are Death Cap Mushrooms Invading America?

Death cap mushrooms have been popping up around the U.S. -- often accompanied by spates of mushroom poisoning. Learn why in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/biology-fields/poisonous-death-cap-mushroom.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here, first off, out of an
abundance of caution, if you're listening to this podcast episode
because you suspect that you have ingested a deathcap mushroom
or any poisonous mushroom and you're in the United States,
called the American Association of Poison Control Centers toll free

(00:22):
twenty four hour hotline at two to two one to
to two immediately. If you live outside of the United States,
contact your local poison control center in your region or country. Okay, okay,
I say this because these mushrooms are serious. Following a
mushroom bloom in the San Francisco Bay area in late fourteen,

(00:45):
people consumed this poisonous fungus and fell drastically ill. One
child even experienced permanent neurological damage. And these were just
some of the latest in a string of poisonings over
the last few decades, a small handful of which proved
to be fatal. The toxic cause Amanita pholoids, better known
by its grim moniker, the deathcap mushroom. The death cap

(01:08):
mushroom is what's known in the world of mycology as
a mutualist. This means that it grows in tandem with
a host to the benefit of both. The host. In
the case of this mushroom is one of several types
of trees. The fungus grows in the soil and mingles
with the tree's roots, drawing out nitrogen from the soil
and bringing it to the tree in exchange for carbon.

(01:31):
In California, where the death cap mushroom is fairly common,
possibly due to its pleasant Mediterranean climate, the fungus normally
grows in tandem with coast live oak. On the east coast,
the fungus usually attaches to pine, and in the fungus's
native Europe, it's a combination of beech and oak. For
the article, this episode is based on hows to work

(01:52):
spoke with Anne Pringle, the Letters and Science Rubinstein, Professor
of Botany and Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A.
Pringle's research confirms what other mycologists have theorized. Amanita floids
is a non native species that was introduced to California
from Europe in the not too distant past. If this
mushroom was native to California, it would be genetically different

(02:15):
from the European variety. About the California death cap is
genetically interrelated to the European one, ergo, the fungus is
one and the same. Pringle said that the first known
sightings in California were at the Del Monte Hotel in
nineteen thirty eight and on the University of California Berkeley
campus in nineteen forty five. So how on earth did

(02:38):
the death cap get to California. One common theory is
that people from Europe transported cork oak from Europe to
California to plant the tree locally, and that's how emanated
Floyd is growing on the cork oaks roots may have
reached North America. It's a good theory, though no one
has found hard evidence to support it yet. While the

(02:58):
death cap is considered an of species in California, that's
not necessarily the case on the East Coast. It's partly
due to a difference inhabitat. On the East Coast, you'll
find it more often in contained urban settings like parks,
where someone may have planted a tree that hosts the
death cap, But in California, the fungus is growing in
forested areas, like the Point Raise National Seashore in the

(03:21):
Greater San Francisco Bay Area. The fungus is spreading up
the West coast in British Columbia too. Some scientists like
Pringle are interested in managing the spread of invasive fungi
like the death cap. Pringle's team has mapped nearly a
hundred genomes of floids, so it's possible that future research
could help curb the mushroom's deadly reach. So what happens

(03:44):
if you do accidentally ingest a deathcap mushroom? How stuff Works?
Also spoke with Race Fuora, medical director for the Fresno
Madera Division of the California Poison Control System. He explained
that the fungus contains a couple of toxins, including foula toxin,
which quote causes severe nausea, vomiting, and dehydration with resulting

(04:05):
kidney damage and electrolyte imbalances. But the kicker is the
alpha A mantin or amatoxin, which prevents certain cells from
making important proteins and other cellular components. It does its
work in the liver. The previous victims have required emergency
liver transplants. The poisoning is spread out over three phases,

(04:26):
and it can take several hours for symptoms of the
death caps toxins to present in the body. Phase one
is nausea and vomiting. In phase two, the nausea and
vomiting might cease, but liver damage progresses in a dramatic fashion.
In phase three, advanced liver failure, seizures, loss of blood pressure,
brain swelling, and comas can occur, and in the worst

(04:48):
case scenario, death. So the number one takeaway here do
not consume the death cap in any form. In fact,
unless you're extremely familiar with the fungi in your air,
Pringle urges that you hold off on wild mushroom foraging,
as it can be really tricky to identify and separate
poisonous mushrooms from safe ones. If you spot a mushroom

(05:10):
that you suspect maybe a deathcap and want help verifying
its identity, Pringle suggests heading over to mushroom observer dot
org to seek guidance. A touching a deathcap should be fine,
since there's no evidence that the toxins transmit through skin contact. However,
Pringle advises that you wash your hands after handling any
sort of mushroom, but although they do cause the majority

(05:32):
of mushroom related fatalities globally, deathcap poisonings are still pretty
rare in the United States. Moreover, Vora says that the
fatality rate is believed to be in the range of
ten to fifteen percent of cases. That's nothing disneeze at,
but it's not an automatic death sentence either. Today's episode

(05:55):
is based on the article Poisonous deathcap mushroom spreads over
North America on house toffworks dot com, written by Terry
yr Lagata. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio
in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced
by Tyler Klain. For more podcasts from My heart Radio,
visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
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