Beware of these toxic mushrooms in East Bay, Berkeley Park District warns

[Spartan]

@csrcsr anna... physedellic mushrooms ani tinaku ... high istai ani they are dangerous

 

With all this rain, two types of potentially deadly mushrooms are popping up in various East Bay parks. Here are which toxic mushrooms to look out for.

“This one is the death cap,” said Mellissa Fowlks who is a naturalist for East Bay Regional Park District. “This is the Western Destroying Angel.”

While both mushrooms look simple like something you would put in a stew or omelet, they are two of the world’s most toxic mushrooms.

“Folks don’t know about them they pick them and eat them they have very toxic and fatal effects,” Fowlks said. 

Fowlks adds both mushrooms contain a lethal chemical compound that causes liver failure, symptoms of mushroom poisoning typically appear around 12 hours after consumption.

Both mushrooms are currently thriving in and around East Bay parks.

“If you don’t know what it is, don’t pick it,” Fowlks said. “In the East Bay Regional Park District, you are not permitted to pick or forage unless you have a permit.”

But not all mushrooms are poisonous.

Fowlks is getting ready for the Tilden Fungus Fair, a free event to educate visitors on the variety of mushrooms around the East Bay.

The park district’s special collectors dropped some of them off on Friday.

“Anything in our parks we really like to tell our folks to leave things better than how they found them and so leaving things here as they are in the natural environment is incredibly important,” Fowlks said