While hiking to upper Marvine on Aug. 10, Shawn Luce stopped to photograph these mushrooms on the side of the trail. Brushing aside greenery to get a clearer view, her right hand touched the top and underneath of one of the mushrooms. An hour later, her hands tingled, and by the time she reached the parking lot they were swollen to twice their normal size. “At home, I washed carefully and took a Benadryl, and within a half hour was recovering,” Luce said. “These are probably Amanita Muscaria, also known as Fly Agaric or Fausee Oronge (from the
website www.rogersmushrooms.com). I understand these appear at other sites, too, so a warning may save someone a problem.”
’Shrooms of doom …
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Correct spelling of name: Amanita muscaria; when naming organisms scientifically the species name is not capitalized; being a Botanist (one degree is in Mycology the study of mushrooms) I could not let this go! Also reacting to A. muscaria by touch is very unusual–in fact I could not find any literature-scientific or other- that mentioned this reaction; the alkaloids that are toxic react after being ingested. Shawn you must be very sensitive to certain chemicals of mushrooms! Which makes me think you might react to other edible mushrooms as well–although I do not have medical knowledge to make a diagnostic, just area of concern from my graduate school days of studying fungi.