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Galerina marginata

Deadly galerina · Funeral bell · Autumn skullcap

Deadly

The one that kills people who pick psilocybin mushrooms. It grows on wood and wood chips, in the same beds, at the same time of year, sometimes in the same square metre as Psilocybe cyanescens and P. stuntzii, and it has a ring, like P. stuntzii. Deaths have occurred exactly this way. If you take one thing from this site, take the spore print rule.

If you may have eaten this: get to an emergency department now and say you may have eaten an amatoxin-containing mushroom. Don’t wait for symptoms, the symptom-free window is part of the poisoning, not a sign you’re fine. Bring a sample if you can. Treatment works far better before liver damage sets in.

What it does

Toxin
Alpha-amanitin, the same amatoxin group found in the death cap. It binds RNA polymerase II and shuts down protein synthesis, destroying liver cells. Cooking, drying and freezing do not destroy it.
Time to symptoms
Deceptively delayed: 6 to 24 hours before any symptom. Violent vomiting and diarrhoea, then an apparent recovery over the following day, then liver failure at 3 to 5 days. The false recovery is why people present too late.
Outcome
Liver failure. Fatal without treatment and sometimes despite it; transplant is the endpoint in severe cases. A few caps is a potentially lethal dose for an adult.

Decisive characters

Each of these settles the question on its own. If one says no, the answer is no, regardless of what everything else says.

Spore print
Psilocybin speciesDark purple-brown to purple-black
Look-alikeRusty brown to ochre-brown
Bruising
Psilocybin speciesBruises blue or blue-green where handled, cut or damaged
Look-alikeNever bruises blue. No colour change at all.

Supporting characters

Useful corroboration. Not sufficient alone.

Gill colour at maturity
Psilocybin speciesDark purple-brown to near-black
Look-alikeRusty brown, matching the spore print
Ring
Psilocybin speciesAbsent in most species. Present in P. stuntzii and P. cubensis, which is exactly where the confusion happens.
Look-alikePresent, thin, membranous, often collapsing to a ring zone dusted rusty brown
Smell
Psilocybin speciesFarinaceous, or faintly of nothing much
Look-alikeMealy to faintly floury; not a reliable separator
Habitat
Psilocybin speciesWood chips, mulch, grass, dung depending on species
Look-alikeRotting wood and wood chips, often clustered on buried wood, the same beds as P. cyanescens

Confused with

Sources

  1. [1]Amatoxin poisoning, Ye & Liu, 'Management of Amanita phalloides poisoning' (2018)
  2. [2]Galerina marginata amatoxin content, Muraoka & Shinozawa (2000)