Deathcap
Poisonous 
Autumn 
Summer 
An innocuous looking mushroom that is among the most poisonous in the UK along with the Destroying Angel.
| Mushroom Type | |
| Common Names | Deathcap (EN), Death Cap (US), Cap Marwol (CY), Muchomor Zielonawy (PL), Gyilkos Galóca (HU) |
| Scientific Name | Amanita phalloides |
| Season Start | Jul |
| Season End | Nov |
| Average Mushroom height (CM) | 10-14 |
| Average Cap width (CM) | 8-12 |
Cap
8-12 cm. Convex at first then opening and flattening. The cap colour can vary from olive green to dirty yellow or even tan brown. Slimy when wet but still looking shiny when dry.
Gills
Crowded and free of the stem. White to cream.
Stem
10-14 cm long, 1-1.5 cm diameter. White with a bulbous base and surrounded by a thin veil (volva) which is sack-like at ground height, tapering slightly towards the cap. The top of the volva will often be found attached to the stem more than halfway up, looking like a skirt.
Skirt
Superior. White with obvious striations under the skirt sometimes visible on top.
Volva
A very obvious deep volva that can be under the ground surface.
Flesh
White.
Habitat
Most mixed woodland, particularly with oak and other deciduous trees.
Spore Print
White. Ellipsoid to subglobose. You should scrape your spores into a small pile to get an accurate spore colour.
Taste / Smell
DO NOT try any part of this mushroom.
Frequency
Uncommon but can become more frequent some years when the conditions are right.
Other Facts
The symptoms of Deathcap poisoning can start several hours after ingestion with severe vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pains and can last for a few days; this is followed by what seems to be a recovery for a few days but ending in death from kidney and liver failure. The main poison, alpha-amanitin, kills liver cells and passes through the kidneys to be recirculated and cause more damage.
There are things that can be done to try and mitigate any harm from ingestion of the Deathcap while on the way to hospital. Excessive hydration with water can be very helpful as soon as possible. In hospital they can now sometimes treat the poisoning using an extract of milkthistle, if not, dialysis followed by new kidneys and possibly liver is the only option.
20 comments for Deathcap
Is there a litmus type paper that will identify the moisture of poisonous mushrooms?
Unfortunately not 🙁
There is a test strip for amatoxins which works on a similar basis as a drug test or a pregnancy test, https://amatoxtest.com/ learning how to identify the deadly amanitas, galerinas, lepiotas and, if you are taking certain entheogenic small brown mushrooms, pholiotina (formerly conocybe) rugosa is a good idea, if in doubt, leave it out, but if you are determined, you could invest in test strips. Milk thistle is an antidote, but it must be taken as soon as you are aware you may have consumed amatoxins, BEFORE liver damage accumulates, if you are feeling symptoms, the damage is done, but you could prevent more damage being done.
OMG. This is terrifying and not worth picking/eating/putting any effort in eating any mushrooms. I mean the chemical has no antidote and it sneakily circulates via kidneys to get reabsorbed and keep causing more and more damage? This is the stuff of horrors!
You can learn to identify mushrooms species by species. By putting in hours and effort, you will get to know the most dangerous poisonous ones and the the most interesting (fleshy, delicious) mushrooms, so foraging will be safe for you.
I know it says uncommon, however this year seems to be the year of them for us. My puppy is in hospital right now due to licking one of these. I have now gone dug up approximately 30 in our woods in fear our other dog will also find one. They are quite a beautiful mushroom at all stages of growth but this is utterly terrifying how just licking one has made him so unwell. They have been giving him supportive measures such as hydration and milk thistle extract and all we can do is wait and see.
any updates on the pup?
I can report he is well and thriving! We are now contemplating moving as it’s so hard to know when/if it will be a year for them to come up.
I’m so glad he’s ok 🙂
Thank you !!
I have been on the lookout for them as season can start in July and have just dug up 27 in a spot different to last year !
The author is wrong. Deathcaps are very common. I’ve been foraging for over 30 years and see these all over in various woodland locations regularly.
Depends where you live, in the north of England they are very rare, and where I live in Manchester you would never see them ever no matter how many woods and forests you look they just don’t grow here, all other Amanitas are abundant but death caps are never to be found
Are there any cures for the mushroom?
Aggressive re-hydration as soon as possible can help on the way to hospital, where if caught early enough, the poisoning can be treated with extracts of Milk Thistle which seems to help. In a lot of cases the liver and kidneys may have suffered permanent damage and will need replacing with a transplant.
The problem is, symptoms take days. By the time the symptoms have kicked in, it’s too late.
The therapy is quite complex as there is more than one toxin and the symptoms appear when damage is already being done. Most survivors need a liver (and sometimes kidney) transplant.
They are not a problem for me as they have never ever been recorded or seen in my part of the U.K. (Manchester) all other Aminata species are abundant but you would never see a death cap here obviously the conditions are not right for them to grow here
these things are terrifying! my first encounter with wild mushrooms as a kid was one of these. me and my brother aged 9-10 found this and decided to cook it, we only figured out what it was after cooking and both freaked out. we made ourselves sick, threw out the plates/ pans and cleaned the whole kitchen. my love for mushrooms has sprouted since that day and i defiantly know not to touch them now
What made you decide at the last minute not to eat them?
You may miss out on the tasty StGeorge mushroom but if you can’t identify these very obvious Amanita family, never eat a mushroom with white gills.Most of the accidental consumption of Amanitas is by Asian people who pick the very young mushrooms before the cap breaks the veil because they mistake them for a large version of the Chinese straw mushroom they have picked in their home country.Also it is not milk thistle as a solid medication that cures amatoxin poisoning.It has to be in pure serum form called Silibinin which is administered intravenously. Two problems, one the diagnosis may take too long and two the medical centre treating you may not have a ready supply of Silibinin.As for dogs or humans licking Amanita, the Amatoxins can only be released from ingesting and digesting the solid flesh of the fungi.