after an exhausting 20-mile backpack, I noticed a mushroom that I thought was Floccularia albolanaripes. I was very excited, as I really wanted to see if the flavor was similar to F. straminea. My husband and I each attempted to identify it separately and did NOT agree on its identification. I was stubborn and stuck to my identification but he pointed out to me that it did not have scales on the stipe as F. albolanaripes did. I stuck to my identification and ate it. About 2 hours later I noticed that
I was sweating profusely. I was going through menopause at the time, so hot flashes were common and I paid no attention to it. A short time later I was soaking wet as if I had taken a shower with my clothes on so I changed clothes and this same reaction happened two more times. I then noticed that I started to salivate so much that I couldn’t swallow my own
saliva fast enough to keep up with the amount being produced by my body. I then noticed that I had double vision. My husband examined me and noted my blood pressure to be 60/40 and my pulse was very slow, so I was going into cardiovascular shock. We hurriedly checked Kit Scates’s Poison Control chart and found that appropriate treatment was immediate intravenous injection of atropine. My husband, a physician, started an IV and had atropine available in his emergency kit, which he injected. I was in bed shaking so violently and so cold that even all the bed covers and extra blankets did nothing to keep me warm. I was freezing and shaking for the next two hours before the atropine took effect and I recovered. We live 90 miles from the nearest hospital and had my husband not been there I am convinced I would be dead.
Fortunately, this event took place
2 days before the next SIMA foray in McCall in ≈1995. Dr. Orson Miller was going to be there, so I took the uncooked specimen and he identified it as Tricholomopsis decora. I notified the NAMA poison control center and told them of my potentially deadly reaction to this mushroom so a record of this mushrooms toxicity could be recorded and made known to others. All the mushroom books that I have, listed the edibility of T. decora as “unknown” or edibility was not mentioned at all. I have been hesitant to share this story because it showed my stubbornness, stupidity, and lack of good judgment at the time when I was new to identifying mushrooms. However, hopefully by sharing this experience it will stress to others the importance of proper identification before eating a new mushroom. I still haven’t eaten Floccularia albolanaripes and have lost all desire to do so!
Floccularia albolanaripes, courtesy M. Wood. Fall 2021 FUNGI Volume 14:4 33
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