Quick Take
Toxic death cap mushrooms have sickened more than 30 people and killed three across coastal Northern California, but Santa Cruz County has seen relatively few cases despite its strong foraging culture. Local experts and public health officials are urging residents to avoid wild mushrooms or seek proper education. They warn that dangerous look-alikes are common and that identification apps can be unreliable.
Poisonous mushrooms have sickened more than 30 people across Northern California and the Central Coast, resulting in three deaths. But despite the popularity of wild mushroom foraging in Santa Cruz County, local hospitalizations remain low.
As of Jan. 6, three people have died and a total of 35 people have been hospitalized in California due to amatoxin poisoning after consuming wild, foraged mushrooms in coastal counties from Sonoma to San Luis Obispo, including two hospitalizations in Santa Cruz County.
The culprit is amanita phalloides, known as the death cap mushroom. Abundant rainfall and warm weather so far this winter have created favorable growing conditions for death caps, and foragers are mistaking the dangerous fungi for an edible look-alike. Death caps remain poisonous even after cooking, boiling, freezing and drying.
In a media release last Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health urged Californians never to pick or eat wild mushrooms. “Since death cap mushrooms are easily confused for safe-to-eat, look-alike mushrooms, all mushroom foraging should be avoided,” the organization said in a media release.
“I saw death caps in places I’ve never seen before,” said Phil Carpenter, president of the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz, a longstanding foraging club. While the dangers of mushroom hunting are real, he said that poisoning can be avoided with caution and education.
In some cases, foragers from Central America have mistaken death caps for a type of Caesar’s mushroom, an edible variety that grows in the highlands of Oaxaca. Mushroom knowledge acquired in an ecosystem thousands of miles away leads people to pick the wrong species here. Public health officials have released information materials in Spanish and Mixteco, as well as English, to spread awareness to these communities.
At the Fungus Federation’s annual Santa Cruz Fungus Fair, which took place last weekend at the London Nelson Community Center in downtown Santa Cruz, the organization passed out multilingual leaflets about dangerous mushrooms, too. “It’s all about knowing what you’re picking. There’s not enough information going around in Spanish, although there are a number of groups that have made an effort,” said Carpenter. “It’s very unfortunate because people are losing their lives.”
Almost every edible variety has a poisonous doppelganger, and some people can have reactions to certain culinary mushrooms, similar to a food allergy, said Carpenter. But poisonings can be avoided if foragers educate themselves about the local varieties before they go for a walk in the woods. “Learn the difference before you pick it, not afterwards,” he said.
Carpenter also warns against relying on identification apps like iNaturalist, because he’s seen them make serious mistakes. He believes these apps should be used as only a starting-off point.
State public health officials said three of the people who were hospitalized had to receive liver transplants. None are local. The poisoning cases affected both children and adults, ranging in age from 19 months to 67 years, and include family groups and individual cases. Symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, can occur within six to 24 hours after ingesting toxic mushrooms. These can improve within a day, but individuals can still develop serious to fatal liver damage within two to four days.
The Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency did not share information about the ages or status of the two local victims by publication time.
At 82 years old, Carpenter has foraged fungus since he was a child and has never gotten sick. He advises new foragers to join a mushroom club with educated members who can answer questions. When in doubt, he said to stick one of the Fungus Federation’s mottos: “If you don’t know what it is, just don’t eat it.”
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