Paul stumbled over the table and knocked over the vase, which fell and shattered on the floor. He mumbled incoherently and sat on the couch in a state of confusion. Doubling over with his hands on his stomach, he heaved and felt his innards cramp up then turn to knots. Disoriented, he ran out of the cabin to the outhouse where he ejected streams of brown liquid. He moaned and retched. What was wrong with him? Something he ate? He'd had breakfast six hours ago, just some eggs and... mushrooms!
"Bob..." He mumbled in his delirium and stumbled out of the outhouse with his pants still hanging around his legs.
Paul's cousin, Bob, had gone foraging for mushrooms early that morning. He had brought back a mix of them and just put them all together on the table. Paul must've grabbed a few poisonous ones when he cooked the eggs, thinking they were safe to eat.
He found Bob lying on the lakeshore with his fishing gear scattered on the rocks.
"Hey Bob!" said Paul haunching over the groaning figure. "Come on, buddy. Let’s get you home."
Paul picked his cousin up, and together they made their way back to the cabin, where each moaned and groaned in misery.
They continued shivering and retching in a haze of confusion, neither able to orient himself through the pain, hallucinations, and distortions.
“I feel cold!” said Bob, his shoulders trembling under several layers of blankets.
“I’m gonna go look for help in town,” said Paul, who was beginning to feel better. “You hang in there, buddy.”
Paul eventually found help in town, where they were admitted to the hospital. By the third day after ingesting the mushrooms, the two were feeling better and glad to be out of danger. Lesson learned, they thought. But it was what the doctors later called, “a false remission”. The amatoxin present in the mushrooms had severely damaged their kidneys, livers, and other parts of their nervous systems. By the time they got to the city hospital, it was already too late.
Grim and tragic story! Thankfully, it is all fiction based on a few facts I learned about the Galerina autumnalis mushroom, which is a fungus with a deadly reputation. The current name is Galerina Marginata “known colloquially as funeral bell, deadly skullcap, autumn skullcap or deadly galerina.”
I was exploring the forest after a few wet days when I came across some little brown mushrooms growing on a log. At some other time, I would’ve just kept going on my hike, but I had my camera and decided to turn the lens on this cluster by getting real close in microscope mode.
Back in my lair, I used Google Lens to ID the mushrooms, and the results said that they were Galerina Autumnalis. I like this name because it sounds poetic, but it’s probably not accurate if the “autumn” part refers to the season as these mushrooms grow throughout the year. It seems all they need is a bit of moist encouragement.
To my surprise, the mushrooms turned out to be deadly. ☠️
Now at this point, I have to admit that I’m not fully certain that G. Lens correctly IDed this mushroom, so I am happy to be corrected if this information turns out to be wrong. The mushrooms in my photograph seems to be missing a ring around the stem called the annulus, which is characteristic of the Galerina variety. Perhaps they don't have the stem ring because they’re newly sprung and haven’t begun to dry up. They fit the rest of the profile for the Galerina, which includes brown caps (that eventually changes colour with age), stem colour gradient towards darker brown at the bottom, approximately one-inch caps, and so on.
This mushroom contains the same “amatoxins” found in death cap mushrooms. From what I read, it attacks the body’s cell enzyme RNA polymerase. The liver gathers the toxins in higher quantities than the rest of the body so it suffers more damage, but other parts like the kidneys also get damaged. Unless there’s major medical intervention such as liver transplant, then the odds are against anyone who ingests them.
The effects of ingestion do not sound pleasant, and they include vomiting, cramps, shivering, hallucinations, hypothermia, and other unpleasant effects. Suffice it to say that it is best to stay away from this species. 😅
This mushroom, of which there are many varieties, are found in the Northern hemisphere but Australia has them as well, so they’re prolific customers. They like living in moist rotten mossy conifers that have been landscaped by previous fungi residents.
Given that I'm unable to verify if this mushroom is indeed a Galerina Autumnalis, I don't know if any of what I just told you is accurate, but I hope you enjoyed the yarn.
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