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 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, 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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 listen to your favorite shows.