Victoria’s Department of Health are warning Victorians, including those in Hume and Whittlesea, to be avoid consuming harmful wild mushrooms, including Death Cap mushrooms and Yellow staining mushrooms, as wet and cooler weather provides the ideal growing conditions for certain types of mushrooms.
Commonly found in both metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, Death Cap mushrooms and Yellow staining mushrooms and can cause gastrointestinal illness, liver failure, and death.
Victoria deputy chief health officer Dr Clare Looker said picking and consuming wild mushrooms can have serious consequences for people’s health.
“It is very difficult to distinguish between poisonous and edible wild mushrooms, so people are advised to only consume commercially bought mushrooms,” she said.
Death Cap mushrooms are typically found near oak trees in metropolitan Melbourne and rural areas.
The mushrooms are large, with a pale yellow-green to olive-brown cap, white gills, a skirt around the stem and a cup-shaped sac around the base.
Symptoms of poisoning by Death Cap mushrooms can include stomach pains, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea within hours of consumption.
Even if symptoms subside, serious organ failure can occur 24 to 48 hours after ingestion that may result in death.
The Yellow staining mushroom is another exotic species which looks similar to ‘supermarket’ or cultivated mushrooms and to edible wild mushrooms, such as the field mushroom.
In urban areas, the Yellow staining mushroom can grow in large troops in lawns and gardens.
The cap and stem are white-ish to pale brown, and turn yellow when rubbing the surface with a thumbnail.
It usually has an unpleasant odour.
Symptoms experienced after consumption include nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhoea.
People who suspect they may have consumed a poisonous mushroom are advised to seek medical attention immediately and not to wait for symptoms to appear.
People should contact the Victorian Poisons Information Centre immediately on 13 11 26 for assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
