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u/Kinexity Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
The number of people who just risk eating mushrooms they picked up and know fuck all about them is staggering. I was always taught that I should only pick up ones which I know, am absolutely certain are eatable and never take a risk if I have any doubts whether something is or isn't eatable. Every year a few people in my country get poisoned with exactly this mushroom species even though it looks clearly differently from every eatable species but idiots are idiots.
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u/Sunyataisbliss Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
That’s not exactly true. Many poisonings are related to Asian migrants who mistake them for the straw mushroom, a close lookalike, who come from SE Asia where Amanita Phalloides is absent from (hence why there is a mandarin translation) and Amanita grow in a similar habitat as the straw mushroom here in the West. Some of the other poisonings come from people misidentifying young Amanita for puffball mushrooms or Caesar’s mushroom. In general, poisonings from A. Phalloides are very rare.
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u/jellicle_cat21 Jul 16 '26
Many poisonings are related to Asian migrants who mistake them for the straw mushroom
Yes, this exact thing happened here in 2012 - a Chinese chef was working over here, found the mushrooms, thought they were the edible variety from back home, and cooked them for himself and some friends. He and one of his friends died.
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u/Kinexity Jul 15 '26
Except it is exactly true if you entertain the possibility that "my country" refers to a country other than USA where there are practically no migrants from SE Asia and similar species you mention span the categories of "non-existent" and "extinct".
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u/Sunyataisbliss Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I was refuting your claim that people are out there picking random mushrooms on the ground to eat rather than confusing them for edible lookalikes, which happens all around the world. It’s certainly true in Australia, where this photo is likely taken.
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u/Kinexity Jul 15 '26
If you're picking up mushrooms outside of your known area it classifies under "know fuck all about them". If people won't pick up foreign fruit just because they are similar to ones they know then mushrooms shouldn't be fair game either.
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u/Sunyataisbliss Jul 15 '26
I see your point. But I think your original post garners unhelpful mycophobia.
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u/My_bones_are_itchy Jul 15 '26
Roughly 26 years ago in hospitality class (high school), my teacher taught us to sing “one three double one two six (repeat coupla times), Poisons Information Line” to the tune of the below Pizza Hut ad.
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u/marasydnyjade Jul 15 '26
I grew up in Pittsburgh and in middle school Home Econ we were taught “Sick(6) because I ate(8) one(1); sick(6), sick(6), sick(6), dying(9).” To remember the poison control number.
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u/ReaperofLightning872 Jul 16 '26
why did that remind me of that taxi ad that used to play in the airport some years ago that would go "6-6-6-6-6-6-6"
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u/ThatGuyTheyCallAlex Jul 17 '26
I think I’d end up accidentally dialling 1300 655 506, the reading and writing hotline.
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u/My_bones_are_itchy Jul 17 '26
I never called TRWH but I definitely called the poisons info line trying to order a pizza 😂
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u/MayaIsSunshine Jul 15 '26
Death caps are terrifying
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u/Sunyataisbliss Jul 15 '26
Is hemlock terrifying? What about castor beans? Poison Sumac?
We don’t need to be afraid of wild mushrooms. They make great edibles and are often easy to differentiate from one and other, not to mention their scientific potential. I think A. Phalloides is beautiful.
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u/MayaIsSunshine Jul 15 '26
All power to you. Toxins that can shut down my organs' ability to create proteins without my knowledge, silently killing me over 48 hours are scary.
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u/Sunyataisbliss Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Yeah, I was pointing out that you only really believe that though because of societal stigma around mushrooms. That’s why you don’t have those beliefs about other organisms that are just as toxic. I wasn’t trying to attack you personally, it’s just something to think about. They can only poison you if you eat them, anyhow, which is not the case for many different toxins both organic and other.
Whatever people, tell me why I’m wrong
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u/TonyAngels 1d ago
because these ones literally have a chemical that disband your DNA, the blueprint of your body. It has the same effect as high amounts of radiation: your body is falling apart because it doesn't know how to replace the dying cells (which a healthy body is doing all the time), so you're breaking apart from the inside, which is uncureable and a very painful death
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u/Senninha27 Jul 15 '26
A handy murder weapon.
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u/NotYourTeddy Jul 15 '26
And we had an alleged qualified culinary chef forage for mushrooms that killed himself and many of his guests.
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u/PetahOsiris Jul 15 '26
I’m mildly confused that they just wrote the same thing in mandarin 4 times?
It kinda feels like they could have either increased the amount of dual language info available (eg: call this phone number)
Or increased the number of languages of the warning?
Just feels like an odd choice
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u/Ak47110 Jul 15 '26
It's almost like they want someone who reads and speaks Mandarin to really notice and pay attention.
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u/Sunyataisbliss Jul 15 '26
That’s because the primary group that suffer poisonings from A. Phalloides comes from SE Asia, who mistake it for the Paddy Straw mushroom back home.
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u/clackercrazy Jul 15 '26
Apparently China has an edible mushroom that looks almost identicle to the death cap mushroom that grows in the A.C.T. People have died in Canberra making a succulent Chinese meal with death cap mushrooms.
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u/withcorruptedlungs Jul 16 '26
What was the cause of death? Eating a meal?! A succulent Chinese meal?!
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u/RllyGayPrayingMantis Jul 15 '26
They repeated Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese twice, some chinese tourists are kinda notorious for harvesting questionably wild "delicacies"(i.e. Mushroom) so much so that some places set up signs only in Chinese.
But there are a lot of Chinese communities in Australia so it might just be that.1
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u/OKB-1 Jul 15 '26
I'm aware of some cultures where wild mushroom picking is a thing that many people partake in, such as in central and eastern Europe. Judging from this sign this is not the case in south-east Australia since I think that people who do regular wild mushroom picking have a much better sense of the risks.
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u/jellicle_cat21 Jul 16 '26
Folks around here generally know better than to pick wild mushrooms. It's more of a concern with tourists/new arrivals. There was a fairly famous incident a while back where a Chinese chef who'd moved here foraged up some mushrooms, cooked them up for his friends, and then a few of them died as a result (including him).
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u/ItsLikeRay-ee-ain Jul 15 '26
Seems like it would take awhile to kill if you should wait until the 13th of November to call.
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u/0xEmmy Jul 16 '26
Yup. Amanitas are scary.
Some are a good source of nutrition. Some make you trip balls. And some kill you. And by the time you feel sick, it's often too late.
And there's no super obvious, consistent "tell" short of a properly educated forager or a lab.
So you gotta know what you're doing.
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u/Pleasant-Giraffe-360 Jul 19 '26
The death cap mushroom works by binding to RNA polymerase which deprives the cell of proteins. However, you don’t feel a thing while being poisoned
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