Advisor What is important when picking mushrooms

What was a pleasure one moment can be a danger to life a little later. This is the case if poisonous mushrooms have ended up in your basket while picking. How do you avoid this?

Taking a basket into the forest: For many people, picking mushrooms is simply part of the fall season. The treasures they find end up first in the pan and then in the stomach - as a delicious ragout or risotto, for example.

But this can end badly. Because some edible mushrooms have poisonous doppelgangers. If you don't know the systematic characteristics of a mushroom species and focus more on superficial features such as color and size, you can easily make a mistake.

The chanterelle and its doppelgangers

The chanterelle, for example, has two poisonous doppelgangers: the pointed humpbacked chanterelle and the orange fox chanterelle. Small specimens of these poisonous mushrooms look particularly similar to chanterelles.

Poisoning with them is noticeable through thirst and severe kidney pain. According to the German Society for Mycology (DGfM), it can take two to 21 days for symptoms to appear.

The panther mushroom, which resembles the pearl mushroom, is also a typical candidate for confusion. Just five minutes after ingestion, the panther mushroom can cause symptoms such as walking disorders, seizures and intoxication, which can even lead to coma.

It is often the tuber leaf mushroom

"If there is poisoning with a very poisonous type of mushroom, it is almost always the green button mushroom," says Martin Ebbecke, head of the Poison Information Center North (GIZ) in Göttingen.

The tricky thing about some poisonous mushrooms is that they taste very good. "People who have survived poisoning with the green button mushroom have told me that it was delicious," says Ebbecke, who is a specialist in internal medicine and a clinical toxicologist.

Specimens of the conehead mushroom can be mistaken for mushrooms by less experienced collectors. At first glance, the green button mushroom can resemble edible green russula.

It is also tricky that the symptoms of poisoning - vomiting and diarrhea - only become noticeable relatively late, six to twelve hours after consumption. "This means that valuable time is lost and irreversible damage to organs such as the liver has already occurred," says Ebbecke.

More mushroom poisoning in the fall

Incidentally, the number of mushroom poisonings is also linked to the weather. GIZ Nord keeps statistics on the number of mushroom poisonings in northern Germany.

Due to the dry summer, there were comparatively few mushroom poisonings in 2022 up to and including August compared to previous years. But then the rain set in, the mushrooms grew and the number of mushroom poisonings rose in September and October 2022.

If you suspect mushroom poisoning, you should call the poison control center in your region or call the emergency services.

It depends on details such as the slats

But how can you protect yourself? "It cannot be repeated often enough: Please only pick mushrooms that you can identify with certainty," says Harry Andersson from the German Society for Mycology. When in doubt, volunteer DGfM mushroom experts like him examine the mushroom finds.

Even a small detail on the mushroom - the color of the lamellae, for example - can make the difference between poisonous and edible mushrooms. Only those who know these subtleties can throw their find into the pan with a clear conscience.

There is also fake mushroom poisoning

But even after eating an edible mushroom, you can feel quite ill. A common problem is mushroom poisoning caused by eating fruiting bodies that are too old.

Mushrooms contain protein and therefore behave more like meat and fish in terms of shelf life - and not like vegetables. This is referred to as "false mushroom poisoning", which is a variant of food poisoning.

As a rule, this is not as dramatic as poisoning by poisonous mushrooms. However, even false mushroom poisoning can end in hospital due to diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Therefore: Only take young mushrooms that are in perfect condition.

Old mushrooms are better left in the forest

Tip: The cap should still be firm on boletes such as red caps and porcini mushrooms. This can be determined on the spot in the forest by pressing on the cap with your thumb. If a dent remains, the mushroom is too old.

If you leave mushrooms that are too old in the forest, you are not only doing yourself a favor, but also ensuring that there will be new growth in the next mushroom season. Old fruiting bodies carry ripe spores, the "seeds" of the mushrooms, so to speak. If these ripe spores remain in the forest, young, fresh specimens can grow again the following year.