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xtruss · 8 months

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Environment: Death Cap Mushrooms are Extremely Deadly—and They’re Spreading

The Invasive Death Cap Mushroom is thriving in North America. While it can be difficult to distinguish from an edible one, make no mistake: It can do a number on you.

— By Emily Martin | August 31, 2023

The Death Cap is the World's Deadliest Fungus, responsible for 90 percent of the World's Mushroom-related Poisonings every year. Native to Europe, Death Caps have spread around the World over the past Century. Photograph By Yves Lanceau/Nature Picture Library

The name itself is both alarming and self-explanatory: the death cap mushroom.

Scientifically known as Amanita phalloides, death caps are responsible for 90 percent of the mushroom-related fatalities that occur every year, making them the world’s most lethal mushroom. The infamous fungus was recently in the news after three people in Australia died after ingesting what investigators suspect were death caps.

The mushroom originates from the U.K. and parts of Ireland, but over the past century, it has hijacked trips around the world, spreading to Australia and North America.

Since arriving on the West Coast, the invasive mushroom has spread rapidly throughout California and has even appeared as far north as British Columbia, but much about its arrival remains a mystery. Why the mushroom spread so quickly, when exactly it arrived, and how it will impact the environment it grows in are the topics of ongoing research.

Here’s what you need to know about this deadly mushroom—and how to spot one—in case it emerges in a forest near you.

How The Mushroom Earned Its Name

The unassuming mushroom can grow up to six inches tall with a similarly sized domed cap, sometimes tinged yellow or green. Under its cap are white gills and an off-white stem—characteristics that make it difficult to distinguish from an edible mushroom.

Yet unlike an edible mushroom, it can cause extreme damage to the liver and kidneys, or in some cases, death.

That’s because the mushrooms contain a unique set of toxins, says U.S. Department of Agriculture plant pathologist Milton Drott. Though it is safe to the touch, a death cap contains amatoxins, which prevent cells from creating proteins, ultimately causing cell death and organ failure.

Drott notes that these toxins may have allowed the populations spreading through the U.S. to thrive, serving up a defense against any new predators the fungus encounters in its environment.

But studying the death cap mushroom can be difficult. It’s challenging to replicate ideal environmental conditions for a mushroom in a lab, and studying plucked mushrooms requires complex DNA sequencing.

Some fungi can damage the environment, like the fungus that wiped out American Chestnut trees, but so far, there’s no strong evidence that death caps are a threat to their new environments. In fact, trees and other plants benefit from their presence.

Death caps are a mycorrhizal fungi, which means they form a relationship with plants that’s mutually beneficial for both plant and fungus. The plant receives nutrients from the soil that the fungus extracts, while the fungus receives sugars from the plant.

A Mysterious Move Around The World

It’s nearly impossible to pinpoint the actual moment the deadly mushroom made its way to the western U.S. and why exactly it’s continued to spread since then, says Anne Pringle, a mycologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a leading expert on death caps.

The earliest record of the mushroom in California is from the 1930s. Some researchers theorize that death caps immigrated in the soil of a cork tree transported from Europe to California to make corks for a then burgeoning wine industry. Others say the mushroom may have hitched a ride on a mystery plant imported to beautify college campuses.

Regardless, both Pringle and Drott say the only thing they’re certain of is that the fungus was likely dormant—and thus hidden from human eyes—in an imported plant’s soil.

Scientifically known as Amanita Phalliodes—Death Caps were first spotted in California in the 1930s. Some scientists think they were imported in the soil of cork trees, used to make corks for California's wine makers.

“When they planted that tree in the ground, they also effectively planted the fungus. So, what exactly is the smoking gun, who did it, and when—that's the thing I think we'll never truly know,” Pringle says.

Pringle can’t say for sure what makes the state such a friendly habitat for the invasive species, but she does note that the fungus can tolerate different environments throughout Europe, growing as far north as Sweden and as far south as southern France.

Since arriving, Pringle says its geographic extent has grown larger and spread to other States; most recently it appeared in Idaho.

Retracing Their Steps

When scientists first spotted death caps in the U.S., they thought they may be native to the region because of how widespread they are.

In 2009, Pringle was the first to label the population in California as invasive, a discovery she made by inspecting the mushrooms’ DNA.

“When they planted that tree in the ground, they also effectively planted the fungus. So what exactly is the smoking gun, who did it and when, that's the thing I think we'll never truly know.”

— Anne Pringle

And when scientists did realize the death cap had newly spread into the U.S., there wasn’t any preexisting data to provide clues about where exactly it entered North America and how quickly it multiplied.

“There's so many ideas to test, it’s hard to even know where to get started,” Pringle says.

Research on invasive fungi in the environment is quite new, Pringle says, so answers to questions of why death caps are spreading and its impact on local ecosystems may still be years away.

Drott thinks the mushroom may be proliferating because it thrives in its new soil and with its adoptive plants, or there may be a lack of predators in these new habitats to keep death cap populations in check.

His research has revealed at least one clue: the genes responsible for producing toxins in American death caps are extremely unique, distinct from their genetic cousins in Europe, and may be the key to understanding how the invasive plant has thrived in North America.

Earlier this year, scientists published preliminary research suggesting the death cap can reproduce both with and without a mate, and that a single fungus can live a long, reproductive life.

Encountering A Death Cap

Spotting a death cap requires vigilance.

“It’s scary that these [pass for] delicious mushrooms,” Drott says.

He adds that, in addition to an unalarming physical appearance, the death caps’ toxins don’t smell or provide any other obvious giveaways. Its toxins are also extremely stable when heated and don’t break down when cooked, unlike other edible fungi that are only dangerous to eat raw.

That’s why scientists suggest erring on the side of caution and steering clear of foraging mushrooms. Pringle also emphasizes the importance of learning the plants in your local environment.

“If you can tell the difference between Swiss chard and spinach, you can learn difference between edible and poisonous mushrooms,” Pringle says, emphasizing the small but recognizable differences between the two greens. “People want a magic rule, but there’s nothing I can hand you in a sentence or paragraph."

Rather, she says identifying physical differences between death caps and a safe mushroom can become easier with exposure.

Spreading Awareness

Many death caps have been found in National Parks, including Point Reyes National Seashore in California, where Pringle assisted with a study on the invasion in 2010.

National Park Service (NPS) science advisor Ben Becker notes that parks are constantly seeing new invasive species with the frequent movement of people and equipment, and the death cap is a good example of how humans can transport tiny fungal invaders around the world.

Becker says NPS works with local mushroom science groups like the Bay Area Mycological Society to spread public awareness about the dangers of foraging mushrooms.

If you’re concerned about something you have eaten, go to the emergency room and if possible, take pieces of the mushroom you ate for identification.

And as many foragers and scientists say, don’t munch on a hunch.

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usafphantom2 · 1 month

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SR-71 Pilot Ed Yielding remember that day so well – March 6, 1990. I got up at 1 a.m., got to my briefing at 2 a.m., and into the suit and onto the flight line at 3:45. We planned our takeoff for 4:30 – it was 7:30 in Washington – from Palmdale in the company of a small crowd that gathered for the last flight. The first thing that we had to do was air refuel – the routine was to take off with half a load of fuel for safety, so we’d be light enough to climb in case an engine failed just after lift-off. At 27,000 feet, we did that, with a couple of KC-135Q tankers over the Pacific Ocean. Then, with a full load, we turned east, lit the afterburners, and had a 200-mile running start as we accelerated. Fuel was very tight for the coast-to-coast flight, so we planned to cross the West Coast accelerating through Mach 2.5 at 63,000 feet, before reaching our cruise speed at 76,000 feet.

‘As we crossed the West Coast in the early morning twilight, I could see the white ocean breakers all along the California coastline and the millions of lights of Los Angeles below me, as well as the lights of San Francisco and San Diego. Mexico, on my right beyond San Diego, was dark. As the sun came up, we were doing Mach 3.3, and I soon saw Vegas, Lake Mead and the Grand Canyon from 78,000 feet. I glimpsed Pike’s Peak as I passed the Colorado mountains, and Vida and I were soon over farmland. It hit me again that we were crossing country in minutes that took months for our pioneers to do 150 years earlier. I really reflected in this flight what a great country we had – and all of the courage, the prayers and the sacrifices of our forefathers. from the ground), but as I passed over the East Coast I got one last view of God’s earth at 83,000 feet. I thought about that too, and how I loved to fly this plane, seeing the slight, but noticeable, arc of the curvature of the earth; the darkness overhead; and the bright blue band of atmosphere over the horizon that was 400 miles from us.🇺🇸

the transcontinental flight, a distance of 2,404.05 statute miles (3,868.94 kilometers), required 1 hour, 7 minutes, 53.69 seconds, for an average of 2,124.51 miles per hour (3,419.07 kilometers per hour).

Intermediate closed-course records were also established: Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., 2,299.67 miles (3,700.96 kilometers), 1:04:19.89, averaging 2,144.83 m.p.h (3,451.77 km/h).; Kansas City to Washington, D.C., 942.08 miles (1,516.13 km), 25:58.53, 2,176.08 m.p.h. (3,502.06 km/h); and St. Louis to Cincinnati, 311.44 miles (501.21 km), 8:31.97, 2,189.94 m.p.h. (3,524.37 km/h).

Ed Yielding made the flight with JT Vida on March 6 1990

~Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

#sr 71 blackbird #usaf #cia #nasa #cold war aircraft #spy plane #lockheed martin

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lucky38official · 2 years

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Fallout Fan Emoji Asks

General questions:

🫂: Favorite companion from any game

🇺🇸: Which is your favorite: east coast or west coast?

🗺️: What country in the Fallout universe would you like to have more lore for?

☢️: Who do you believe launched the first nuke?

💀: Share the funniest death that has occured to your pc in any game

🃏: Favorite card set from New Vegas

😘: Favored romance in Fallout 4

🔫: Favorite gun from any game

🔪: Favorite weapon type

👁️: Do you use VATS often?

📻: What is your favorite radio station in any game?

Faction time. What is your opinion on:

🪖: ..the Enclave?

⚕️: ..the Followers of the Apocalypse?

🛡️: ..the Brotherhood?

🐻: ..the New California Republic?

🐂: ..the Legion?

🧬: ..the Institute?

⚡: ..the Minutemen?

🛤️: ..the Railroad?

🎢: ..the Nuka-World raiders?

Media opinions time. Tell us your feelings about:

1️: ..Fallout 1

2️: ..Fallout 2

🎰: ..Fallout New Vegas

3️⃣: ..Fallout 3

4️⃣: ..Fallout 4

⛰️: ..Fallout 76

📺: ..the Fallout TV show

🚫: ..any canceled Fallout projects

#fallout #fallout new vegas #fallout 1 #fallout 2 #fnv #fallout 3 #fallout 4 #fallout 76 #this is a little short but thats so it doesnt clog anyones desktops lololol #hopefully this encourages discussion! i love seeing ppl discuss their opinions about the games :] /gen #ask game #emoji games

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pipelinelaserraygun · 1 year

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youtube

"🎶 The weather started getting rough."

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SUBSCRIBE ❣️

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Referenced up 🔝: "You call THIS a storm⁉️

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Referenced up 🔝:

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Referenced up 🔝: 🇺🇸 Those of Beulah who experienced 🕊️ Revival in California, 50+ yrs ago at Pirate's Cove, are undergoing National remorse wondering, "Where did the time go?" Opportunities were missed across 5 decades 😭.

Raindrops can be Heavenly expressions, 🌧️ standing in agreement concerning the LOST scripted adventures.

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Referenced up 🔝: 📖 🍞 Some works are of GREATER value, than others, such as Evangelism to 🐑🐏 sheeple who DON'T know Jesus.

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MUST 👁️👁️ 🗳️ SEE/ACT‼️

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xtruss · 4 months

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Buenos Aires, Argentina 🇦🇷! A giant mural of Diego Maradona, the footballer who led Argentina to World Cup victory in 1986, created by the artist Martin Ron in his Capitanes series. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Obwalden, Switzerland 🇨🇭! The freshly snow-covered Gross Spannort mountain, with an altitude of 3,198 metres (10,492ft) above sea level. Photograph: Urs Flueeler/AP

Somerset, UK 🇬🇧! Engineering teams use the world’s largest crane – Big Carl – to lift a 245-tonne steel dome on to Hinkley Point C’s first reactor building, at the nuclear power station construction site in Bridgwater. The dome is manoeuvred into position on top of the 44-metre high reactor building. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Pucon town, Chile 🇨🇱! The Villarrica volcano lights up the sky at night. Photograph: Cristobal Saavedra Escobar/Reuters

California, United States 🇺🇸! A group of pelicans gang up on a cormorant to poach its catch of the day, in San Jose, California. The much bigger water birds saw the successful hunt, then managed to grab the trout off the cormorant in a matter of seconds. Photograph: Wei Lian/Solent News & Photo Agency/Solent News

People’s Republic of China 🇨🇳! A flock of oriental white storks foraging at a national ocean park in Lianyungang, on China’s east coast. In Chinese mythology, storks symbolise longevity. They are often associated with the god Shouxing, who controls the human lifespan and is also depicted, pleasingly, holding the ‘peach of immortality’. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

London, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿! A short-eared owl hovers while hunting in Staines Moor, near Heathrow, UK. The British Trust for Ornithology notes that although the ear tufts may be invisible, you can identify this species by the black around its eyes, ‘perhaps giving the appearance of too much mascara and eyeliner’. Photograph: mediadrumimages/Lee Tilley

Türkiye 🇹🇷! Flamingos wade in Lake Van Basin in Türkiye during migration. The lake has attracted up to 10,000 flamingos in past years, but recent droughts due to climate change are causing its shoreline to recede. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Beijing, China 🇨🇳! A giant panda rests on a tree at a zoo in Beijing after a snowfall that prompted road closures and the suspension of classes and train services earlier this week. Photograph: Fanjiashan/Chinatopix/AP

Forever Palestine 🇵🇸 (Illegally Occupied By the Zionist Cunts with the Help of War Criminals United States and the West)! In a photograph taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip, smoke rises during an Isra-heili strike on Palestinian Territory. Photograph: Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP/Getty Images

#Miscellaneous Photographs #Around the World 🌎

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xtruss · 2 years

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Yorkshire, UK 🇬🇧! The moon sets behind Whitby Abbey. The first full moon of 2022 is Monday evening. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Salmon Creek, USA 🇺🇸! Dolphins play in heavy surf, north of Bodega Bay, California. The entire west coast was under a tsunami warning or advisory, following a massive undersea explosion of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha‘apai volcano in Tonga 🇹🇴. Photograph: Kent Porter/AP

Novosibirsk, Russia 🇷🇺! Participants compete in a race as part of the Siberia Ice Speedway Cup at a motorcycle racing track. Photograph: Kirill Kukhmar/TASS

Florence, USA 🇺🇸! The former US president Donald Trump holds a rally in Arizona. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

Elephant in Botswana 🇧🇼! Goats in Morocco 🇲🇦!

Éric Zemmour was fined €10,000 by the court. Photograph: François Nascimbeni/AFP/Getty Images

“Racist, Bigot, Ignorant and Braindead Far-right French Presidential Candidate” Found Guilty of Racist Hate Speech

Éric Zemmour drew widespread outrage in September 2020 after a tirade against child migrants

— Agence France-Presse in Paris | Monday 17 January 2022

A French court has found the far-right presidential candidate Éric Zemmour guilty of racist hate speech for a tirade against unaccompanied child migrants.

Zemmour drew widespread outrage in September 2020 when he told the CNews channel that child migrants were “thieves, killers, they’re rapists. That’s all they are. We should send them back.”

Zemmour, a media pundit who is struggling to assemble the endorsements from elected officials he needs to compete in April’s presidential vote, did not show up in court to hear the verdict, having already skipped his trial in November.

The court fined him €10,000 (£8,350) in daily instalments of €100 over 100 days. He could be jailed if he fails to pay the sum. Zemmour’s lawyer, Olivier Pardo, said he would appeal against the verdict.

Last year, Zemmour claimed the case was “nothing other than another attempt to intimidate me”, saying “they won’t shut me up”.

The far-right journalist and author has two previous convictions for hate speech and has been investigated 16 times in total over incendiary remarks on immigration and Islam.

In 2011, he was fined €10,000 for claiming on TV that “most drug dealers are black and Arab”. In 2018, he was ordered to pay €3,000 for comments about a Muslim “invasion” of France.

His entrance into frontline politics after a career spent in the media sent waves through the French ruling class in September, making him briefly the most talked-about challenger to the president, Emmanuel Macron.

Like all candidates in the race, Zemmour needs to muster 500 endorsements from elected figures around the country by the middle of March in order to have his name on the ballot for the two rounds of voting in April.

But he has admitted he risks being excluded unless more mayors and other elected figures agree to back him under a system he has denounced as discriminating against political outsiders.

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