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Deadly☠️ To avoid

🍄 Destroying angel

Amanita virosa · Amanitacées

🌳 Temperate Europe🍁 North America
🧠 To remember it“Pure white, killing angel” — never trust an all-white mushroom with a volva without formal expert confirmation.
Destroying angel — Amanita virosa

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Nicknamed the "destroying angel" for its deceptive, pure white appearance, this entirely white amanita shares the same deadly toxicity as the death cap. It grows in forests, often solitary, and its innocent look makes it one of the most feared misidentifications with edible white mushrooms such as certain field mushrooms.

  1. cap entirely white, conical then expanding, silky surface
  2. gills white, crowded, free
  3. white membranous ring on the stem
  4. white sac-like volva at the base, often buried — systematically dig it up
Sizecap 5-12 cm, stem 8-15 cm
Floweringsummer-autumn
Habitatdeciduous and coniferous forests, various soils

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Field mushroom or meadow mushroom (at young stage, closed button) (Agaricus campestris)none for the field mushroom, classic and dangerous confusion

To tell them apart: the field mushroom has pink then chocolate-brown gills at maturity (never permanently white) and lacks a sac-like volva at the base; the destroying angel keeps white gills all its life and always has a volva

Young shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus)none for the shaggy ink cap (edible when young, but dangerous interaction with alcohol)

To tell them apart: the shaggy ink cap has a scaly cylindrical cap that turns black and liquefies with age, never a membranous sac-like volva at the base

☠️ What kills

nomAmatoxins (identical to those of the death cap)
dose letale estimeecomparable to the death cap, around 0.1 mg/kg; a single specimen can be fatal (approx)
delai6 to 24 hours, with the same deceptive false remission between 24 and 48 hours
symptomesidentical to the death cap: severe cholera-like vomiting and diarrhea, false improvement, then severe liver and kidney failure
antidoteno universally validated antidote; silibinin and N-acetylcysteine for support, liver transplant possible in severe cases
morts documenteesyes, with a mortality rate comparable to that of the death cap without early medical intervention

First steps : Call poison control immediately if you have any doubt, even before symptoms appear. Do not induce vomiting. Keep a whole specimen including the base of the stem for identification.

Sources (4)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.