the.com/destroying angel
A mushroom so polite it waits a day before deleting your liver.
means A pure white, deadly poisonous mushroom of the genus Amanita whose toxins cause fatal liver and kidney failure, often after a deceptive delay in symptoms.
from A grimly literal English name: 'destroying' for what it does to you, 'angel' for its innocent, ghostly-white appearance — the toxin wears the costume of virtue. The phrase 'destroying angel' itself is far older than mycology, reaching back through Christian and Hebrew scripture to the avenging angels of divine wrath (think the plague of the firstborn in Exodus). Naturalists borrowed that biblical menace for a fungus that looks heavenly and kills like a smiting. The genus name 'Amanita' is likely from the Greek 'amanitai,' an ancient word for a kind of fungus, possibly tied to Mount Amanus in Asia Minor.
- kill count
- Responsible for most fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide
- false calm
- Symptoms vanish, then organs quietly fail
- lethal dose
- Half a cap can kill an adult
- toxin
- Amatoxins survive cooking, freezing, and drying
- disguise
- Looks like edible button mushrooms when young
amanita phalloides — deadly mushroom responsible for ~90% of mushroom poisoning deaths worldwide, contains amatoxins
amanita virosa — australian destroying angel, caused deaths in tasmania and victoria before identification
amanita bisporigera — north american species, found in pacific northwest, equally lethal as phalloides