I recently sent the following letter to Tracey Hobson who writes a gardening column for the Albuquerque Journal. I am posting it here for you. For an account of another fall experience with mushrooms go to Agaricus found.htm. This page includes pictures of the Agaricus bitourquis.
September, 25, 2002
Dear Tracey
Please excuse the lateness of my response to your column of Sept. 20 but I was busy with the State Fair and did not see it when it was published. John Sparks sent me an email this morning and told me about the article. He was concerned that the information that you gave about mushrooms was inaccurate. He and I are both members of the New Mexico Mycological Society and are both concerned about the misinformation that is frequently given about mushrooms in various publications. He requested that I write to you to try to correct some of the misinformation.
I am an amateur mycologist and have taken several courses on Mycology (fungi) from the University and have been registrar for the Mycology Society for a number of years as well as a past president of that group. I am also a 22 year Lifetime Master Gardener and webmaster of the Albuquerque Master Gardener web site which you cited in one of your columns some time ago.
Over 700 species of mushrooms have been found in New Mexico and of those only a handful are poisonous and only three are known to be deadly. There are probably 100 or more species that might be found in lawns and gardens (I really should count them someday) and some of those are excellent edibles. They include the common grocery store mushroom Agaricus campestris. However, I do not recommend that any lawn mushroom be eaten without their first being reliably identified by a mycologist or mushroom expert, and since there are only a few of those in New Mexico that becomes the problem.
You are correct that it was the moisture that brought out the mushrooms but the moisture did not cause the germination of the fungi. The fungus had been there all summer and probably previous summers and the moisture caused the fruiting of the fungi. Most of the lawn mushrooms as well as many of the woodland fungi are perennial. The actual organism is the mycelium, those tiny whitish threads that we usually call mold that can be found anytime we turn over some moist leaves or dig into the soil and run across a bit of rotting wood. The mushroom is just the fruiting body. Picking the mushrooms to prevent them from coming again is like picking all the apples from a tree in an attempt to kill the tree.
Getting rid of mushrooms is a lost cause. They are growing from organic matter that is in the soil, usually old tree roots. All mushrooms even the stinky ones are good guys that convert organic matter into useable nutrients for the lawn. You may have noticed that when a fairy ring (a form of mushroom growth) forms in a lawn that the grass that comes back after the ring has fruited is much greener than it was before. This is because the mushroom has added nutrients to the soil just as if it were fertilizer.
Less water will be helpful in reducing the number of mushrooms but it may also be harmful to the growing grass. The use of fungicides, however, I can not recommend because the mycelium may be so deep in the soil that toxic amounts of fungicide would be required to control them. In addition, fungicides are pesticides and the link between pesticides and childhood leukemia are now being explored and may soon be confirmed. There are also other remedies that various so called experts may suggest that are really more harmful than the mushrooms. My advice to everyone is, Learn to love them.
It is ridiculous to try to destroy lawn mushrooms and then go to the grocery store and purchase them for the spaghetti sauce or to go on the steak. People from all over the world come to collect mushrooms from up in the mountains. You might be purchasing dried mushrooms that originally came from New Mexico. Some of these are the same species that grow in lawns.
As for destroying mushrooms by throwing them away, that too is a lost cause. Fungi spores are everywhere, even in the Arctic and the Sahara. They are microscopic and airborne. As an experiment take a slice of fresh bread and expose it to the air for a few minutes then place it in isolation such as under a glass cover for a few days and you will find it will have fungi growing on it.
Anyone wishing to have a fungus identified may bring them to me and I will attempt to identify them. However, I will also caution them that there are certain caveats with any mushroom such as the fact that anyone may be allergic to any mushroom. I have a list of how to avoid being poisoned by mushrooms on my web site nmmastergardeners.org where you can also find additional information and pictures, as well as the list of species that have been found in New Mexico. If you wish to communicate with me my email address is druth1@aol.com.
A letter to the mushroom discussion board on AOL Gardening had to do with a mushroom poisoning of a dog. I am posting it here since it has to do with the topic of mushrooms, I am also including my reply to the writer.
I write to you with a very heavy heart as we lost
our beautiful Rory (Ch Rivermist Wrap'd In Rainbows) on Friday night. She was 20
months old, and was planning to leave next week to stay with Robin Cameron to
work on her Canadian championship before a US specials career.
Thursday morning, I let Rory in the yard while I packed the van for a dog show
-- she was unattended in our yard for less than a 1/2 hour. We are VERY careful
about the yard and what is in it. I left at 9 AM and she was bouncing around,
happy and just fine. My husband came home from work that evening to find Rory in
shock in her crate.
She was taken to the emergency clinic and put in critical care. My vet went with
her and sat by her side through very nearly the entire ordeal. Rory ate a
mushroom in our yard. It was white with a red inside and has been taken off to
the lab in Michigan for analysis. When I have a name for it, I will be sure to
let you know.
When I tell you that EVERYTHING was done for her, please rest assured that
everything under the sun was done for this dog. This is my profession, these are
my friends... and they walked to the end of the earth for Rory and it was not
enough to save her. After 2 days and nights of very intensive medical work-ups,
Rory's heart stopped beating and she could not be resuscitated. I never said
good bye to her and I never knew that leaving for that dog show without her was
the last time I would ever see her. She was the absolute joy in my life.
Watch your yards for mushrooms! They pop up overnight. Here's some symptoms that
you have a problem... and I can tell you that by the time there are symptoms, it
is too late to be corrected.... dilated, fixed pupils, depressed respirations
and heart rate, sub-normal body temperature, and decreased blood glucose. If you
see your dog eat a mushroom - induce vomiting immediately. Use a tablespoon of
hydrogen peroxide and GET IT OUT OF YOUR DOG'S SYSTEM. It could save her life.
We are still entirely grief-stricken over the loss of our Rory. Thank you for
allowing me the opportunity to share this with you. I can only imagine how long
it will take to heal our hearts.
Update:
Just spent the day at the Plant Pathology lab at Rutgers State Univ. with Dr
James White, a mycologist. Between Dr White, poison control, and the Toxicology
Lab at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, we have all the information we can get about
Rory's death.
The name of the mushroom she ate is called "DESTROYING ANGEL" (amanita virosa).
How befitting the name is this is what it did to our lives. They thrive on roots
of oak trees and therefore I need to tell you that ANY white mushroom located
near an oak tree is suspect to be a variety of the very highly toxic Amanita
(virosa) variety of mushrooms. Dr White informed me that this mushroom kills
adults - a 3x3" mushroom! He only has one other reported care with a dog - a lab
ret and the outcome was the same as Rory's. Life expectancy for an adult human
is 3-4 days after consuming the mushroom. It is shorter in children or pets (in
Rory's case, 2 1/2 days) because of their small size.
Characteristics: mushroom is all white -- white top, white stem, white
"gills" underneath" has a "crumbly" texture -- fragile and may fall apart in
your hands mature mushrooms have a flat, round cap that is 2-3 inches wide.
Mushrooms is 2-4 inches tall and when immature -- still deadly - mushrooms have
a more "ball" appearance to the cap the stem tapers to a fat base will be found
near oak tree or roots of an oak tree (and) cannot be eradicated with commercial
fungicides.
I have some hopes for this knowledge as well as aspirations for Rory. I hope you
will take this information, cross post it, and pass it on. I hope that she has
died so that others may live. Maybe the life she has saved will even be my son,
who is as apt to put something in his mouth as any dog would be. I hope that you
will all remember how very special she was.
My reply to the grieving owner
Something doesn't add up in your account of the poisoning of your dog. You state at the beginning that the mushroom was RED inside and later that the mushroom was all white. How come? It is either one or the other. True, the amanita virosa is deadly and is commonly called the destroying angel and anyone (including pets) eating it is in deadly danger. I am glad that it was reported to NAMA which has its offices for registering cases of mushroom poisoning in Grand Rapids. However, they receive very few reports of such poisoning. Although even one report is too many.
Your report reemphasizes the clear need for better education about mushrooms. All children should be taught that they should NOT put anything in their mouths that is not given to them by a knowledgeable and trustworthy adult. All adults should be taught how to recognize the deadly mushrooms on sight. Failing that, the next best thing is to be wary of all mushrooms but that creates hysteria and that is as bad as the rare poisoning. Most animals seem to have an instinct that protects them but your Rory did not. I am so sorry that you lost your beloved pet. Teach your son at a Very early age not to eat mushrooms or any plants growing in the yard some of which may be as deadly as a few of the mushrooms. (BTW we have never had A. virosa here in NM. At least they have never been reported. Maybe that is because we rarely have oak trees.) One characteristic that you failed to mention is the volva or cup at the base of the stem of all the amanitas. This is the main identifying trait by which one knows the amanita family. However, some of the Amanitas are excellent edibles and do not cause poisoning. In order to know which ones these are you will have to study the family. So never cut the stem of a fungus but rather dig it up because the cup may be underground where it can't be seen. By cutting the stem the cup or volva is left behind and the mushroom may be mistaken for a safe edible one. That can be a deadly mistake.
I should add that even if she had taken her beloved pet with her to the dog show she would not have been able to prevent her untimely death if the dog had swallowed the mushroom before she left because the symptoms do not appear for up to 24 hours. She would not have known anything was wrong until the symptoms appeared and then it would have been too late. The mode of the poisoning is through the liver and kidneys where the amanitin toxin destroys the tissues. Ironically the body does not recognize the toxin when it goes from the liver to the kidneys and recycles it back to the liver where it continues to do its deadly damage. The actual cause of death is liver and kidney failure. The only known treatment is a liver and/or kidney transplant.