FUNGI FEARS

Officials Beg Public to Stop Mushroom Foraging After 4 Deaths

Aptly named “Death Cap” mushrooms are flourishing after a wet winter.

Authorities in California are begging locals to stop eating mushrooms they find in the wild after four people have died and three others have required liver transplants. Since November, there have been more than three dozen cases of poisoning from so-called “death cap” mushrooms, California Department of Public Health records show. A warm fall coupled with a wet winter has created a “super bloom” of the mushrooms that are responsible for 90 percent of fatal mushroom poisonings globally, according to Dr. Craig Smollin from the California Poison Control System. “The main thing this year is just the magnitude, the number of people ingesting this mushroom,” Smollin said. “Having almost 40 is very unusual.” The Aminita phalloides mushroom originates from Europe and can often be found under European oak trees. It is the same mushroom used by Australian woman Erin Patterson to murder three of her relatives with a poisoned lunch in the 2023 case that gripped the world. Officials’ advice is to avoid foraging for mushrooms entirely while death caps remain prevalent.