Subject: Chlorophyllum poisoning

From: [email-masked] ("Stephen P. Bentivenga")
Date: 11 Sep 1996 08:35:22 -0700

Hi Mycologists -

with all the recent discussion of Macrolepiota rachodes and Chlorophyllum
molybdites, I thought you would find the following story interesting.  

Sunday night a collegue came over with a mushy, frozen mushroom specimen.
He had spent the weekend in northeastern Iowa with some friends.  The
mushrooms were growing in the back yard in the grass near some apple trees,
and the homeowners picked and ate a "generous portion" over steak.  They
proceeded to spend the next many hours feeling very ill - vomiting and the
works.  They had casually consulted a mushroom guide (I don't know which
one), and determined the mushrooms to be edible (I assume they
mis-identified them as Lepiota procera or Macrolepiota rachodes).  

The mushrooms were Chlorophyllum molybdites -- no doubt.  The specimens were
quite mature and would have given a fine spore print, had it been checked.  

The two mycophagists did not go to the hospital.  Two things that saved them
>from  further pain and grief:  they both are large people, and they boiled
the mushrooms (yuck) and discarded the water before eating them.  This
reduced the amount of toxin consumed, but obviously did not elimanate all
traces.  

Dr. O'Dell's advice should be heeded closely: "When in doubt, throw it
out!!!"  I have had other experiences with C. molybdites poisoning, and it
can be ugly.  The cramping and vomiting can be so violent that you wish you
were dead.  It can go on for hours.  Apparantly, some people can eat this
mushroom without harm, but most people react to it.  According to data from
the North American Mushroom Association, C. molybdites is the most common
cause of mushroom poisoning in the United States.  

I hope the two casual mycophagists have learned their lesson.  It was
certainly a painful one.  

- Steve Bentivenga
____________________________________________________________
                                
      ___/^,       Stephen P. Bentivenga, Ph.D.
     ;      ^'--.    Department of Biology & Microbiology
    :            -:    University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
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From: Darin Burleigh <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 16:11:09 -0500

> I hope the two casual mycophagists have learned their lesson.  It was

ON Wisconsin!

My story is a happier one. 
I saw a patch of big white 'lepiota's growing on someone's
lawn one morning, and w/o bothering to ask, just swiped a big
cap. I thought, for sure this is a tasty lepiota! 
by the time i got home, reason got the better of me, and i put
the cap aside for a spore print. meanwhile i double checked 
my books, and came across this curious reference to the 
'green spored lepiota'. sure enough, there was a green
tinge to my print. saved.