Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here, first off, out of an
Speaker 1: abundance of caution, if you're listening to this podcast episode
Speaker 1: because you suspect that you have ingested a deathcap mushroom
Speaker 1: or any poisonous mushroom and you're in the United States,
Speaker 1: called the American Association of Poison Control Centers toll free
Speaker 1: twenty four hour hotline at two to two one to
Speaker 1: to two immediately. If you live outside of the United States,
Speaker 1: contact your local poison control center in your region or country. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I say this because these mushrooms are serious. Following a
Speaker 1: mushroom bloom in the San Francisco Bay area in late fourteen,
Speaker 1: people consumed this poisonous fungus and fell drastically ill. One
Speaker 1: child even experienced permanent neurological damage. And these were just
Speaker 1: some of the latest in a string of poisonings over
Speaker 1: the last few decades, a small handful of which proved
Speaker 1: to be fatal. The toxic cause Amanita pholoids, better known
Speaker 1: by its grim moniker, the deathcap mushroom. The death cap
Speaker 1: mushroom is what's known in the world of mycology as
Speaker 1: a mutualist. This means that it grows in tandem with
Speaker 1: a host to the benefit of both. The host. In
Speaker 1: the case of this mushroom is one of several types
Speaker 1: of trees. The fungus grows in the soil and mingles
Speaker 1: with the tree's roots, drawing out nitrogen from the soil
Speaker 1: and bringing it to the tree in exchange for carbon.
Speaker 1: In California, where the death cap mushroom is fairly common,
Speaker 1: possibly due to its pleasant Mediterranean climate, the fungus normally
Speaker 1: grows in tandem with coast live oak. On the east coast,
Speaker 1: the fungus usually attaches to pine, and in the fungus's
Speaker 1: native Europe, it's a combination of beech and oak. For
Speaker 1: the article, this episode is based on hows to work
Speaker 1: spoke with Anne Pringle, the Letters and Science Rubinstein, Professor
Speaker 1: of Botany and Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A.
Speaker 1: Pringle's research confirms what other mycologists have theorized. Amanita floids
Speaker 1: is a non native species that was introduced to California
Speaker 1: from Europe in the not too distant past. If this
Speaker 1: mushroom was native to California, it would be genetically different
Speaker 1: from the European variety. About the California death cap is
Speaker 1: genetically interrelated to the European one, ergo, the fungus is
Speaker 1: one and the same. Pringle said that the first known
Speaker 1: sightings in California were at the Del Monte Hotel in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty eight and on the University of California Berkeley
Speaker 1: campus in nineteen forty five. So how on earth did
Speaker 1: the death cap get to California. One common theory is
Speaker 1: that people from Europe transported cork oak from Europe to
Speaker 1: California to plant the tree locally, and that's how emanated
Speaker 1: Floyd is growing on the cork oaks roots may have
Speaker 1: reached North America. It's a good theory, though no one
Speaker 1: has found hard evidence to support it yet. While the
Speaker 1: death cap is considered an of species in California, that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily the case on the East Coast. It's partly
Speaker 1: due to a difference inhabitat. On the East Coast, you'll
Speaker 1: find it more often in contained urban settings like parks,
Speaker 1: where someone may have planted a tree that hosts the
Speaker 1: death cap, But in California, the fungus is growing in
Speaker 1: forested areas, like the Point Raise National Seashore in the
Speaker 1: Greater San Francisco Bay Area. The fungus is spreading up
Speaker 1: the West coast in British Columbia too. Some scientists like
Speaker 1: Pringle are interested in managing the spread of invasive fungi
Speaker 1: like the death cap. Pringle's team has mapped nearly a
Speaker 1: hundred genomes of floids, so it's possible that future research
Speaker 1: could help curb the mushroom's deadly reach. So what happens
Speaker 1: if you do accidentally ingest a deathcap mushroom? How stuff Works?
Speaker 1: Also spoke with Race Fuora, medical director for the Fresno
Speaker 1: Madera Division of the California Poison Control System. He explained
Speaker 1: that the fungus contains a couple of toxins, including foula toxin,
Speaker 1: which quote causes severe nausea, vomiting, and dehydration with resulting
Speaker 1: kidney damage and electrolyte imbalances. But the kicker is the
Speaker 1: alpha A mantin or amatoxin, which prevents certain cells from
Speaker 1: making important proteins and other cellular components. It does its
Speaker 1: work in the liver. The previous victims have required emergency
Speaker 1: liver transplants. The poisoning is spread out over three phases,
Speaker 1: and it can take several hours for symptoms of the
Speaker 1: death caps toxins to present in the body. Phase one
Speaker 1: is nausea and vomiting. In phase two, the nausea and
Speaker 1: vomiting might cease, but liver damage progresses in a dramatic fashion.
Speaker 1: In phase three, advanced liver failure, seizures, loss of blood pressure,
Speaker 1: brain swelling, and comas can occur, and in the worst
Speaker 1: case scenario, death. So the number one takeaway here do
Speaker 1: not consume the death cap in any form. In fact,
Speaker 1: unless you're extremely familiar with the fungi in your air,
Speaker 1: Pringle urges that you hold off on wild mushroom foraging,
Speaker 1: as it can be really tricky to identify and separate
Speaker 1: poisonous mushrooms from safe ones. If you spot a mushroom
Speaker 1: that you suspect maybe a deathcap and want help verifying
Speaker 1: its identity, Pringle suggests heading over to mushroom observer dot
Speaker 1: org to seek guidance. A touching a deathcap should be fine,
Speaker 1: since there's no evidence that the toxins transmit through skin contact. However,
Speaker 1: Pringle advises that you wash your hands after handling any
Speaker 1: sort of mushroom, but although they do cause the majority
Speaker 1: of mushroom related fatalities globally, deathcap poisonings are still pretty
Speaker 1: rare in the United States. Moreover, Vora says that the
Speaker 1: fatality rate is believed to be in the range of
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen percent of cases. That's nothing disneeze at,
Speaker 1: but it's not an automatic death sentence either. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the article Poisonous deathcap mushroom spreads over
Speaker 1: North America on house toffworks dot com, written by Terry
Speaker 1: yr Lagata. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Klain. For more podcasts from My heart Radio,
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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.