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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

This article is not new (except to me), it is from August.  But, I know some 
people pick wild muxhrooms (I do not -- the risk/reward thing).  If you click 
on the link there is a picture of this mushroom

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 3 Franklin residents gravely ill from eating wild mushrooms

by Rudy Larini/The Star-Ledger 

Three Somerset County residents have learned firsthand the dangers of picking 
and eating wild mushrooms.



Wikipedia
Amanita Verosa also called "The Destroying Angel" mushroom
The three, who live in Franklin Township, have been hospitalized with liver 
toxicity; one is in critical condition and may need a transplant.

Bruce Ruck, director of drug information and professional education at the 
New Jersey Poison Control Center in Newark, identified the victims as a 
mother and her daughter and son-in-law, all Asian Indians. The mother is in 
critical condition and being evaluated for a liver transplant at University 
Hospital in Newark; the other two are at Princeton University Medical Center.

"They picked and ate wild mushrooms and wound up with liver toxicity," Ruck 
said.

Officials from the poison center have been unable to interview the mother and 
are uncertain where or when the mushrooms were picked, Ruck said. All three 
victims, however, fell ill within the past two days, he said.

Ruck said poisonous mushrooms often are indistinguishable from edible 
varieties, especially to an untrained eye.

"At this time of the year, people see mushrooms growing on the lawn or on the 
side of the road and they think they can eat them, but they can't," he said. 
"You can have two mushrooms growing side by side and people think they're the 
same mushroom, but they're not."

Immigrants can be especially susceptible, he said, if they are accustomed to 
picking and eating wild mushrooms in their native countries.

"Because the mushroom may look like something they ate at one time, they 
think it's same mushroom, but it's not," Ruck said. "The bottom line is we 
just don't want people picking and eating wild mushrooms."

But Peter Kothari, a leader in New Jersey's Indo-American community, said 
Indians have no particular propensity to pick and eat wild mushrooms in their 
homeland.

"It's not customary at all for people to pick and cook their own mushrooms," 
he said. 

Ruck said the suspected culprit in the Franklin case is the amanita mushroom, 
a pure white variety also known as the destroying angel or the death cap. 
Eating the mushrooms causes nausea and vomiting and within days can lead to 
liver or kidney failure, Ruck said.

Last month, a 61-year-old woman from White Plains, N.Y., died after consuming 
poisonous mushrooms she had picked along the side of a highway in upstate New 
York.

Ruck said the weather is now ideal for mushroom growth and he expects this 
week's cooler temperatures with some precipitation over the weekend could 
produce a robust bloom.

"This is the perfect setup for wild mushrooms," Ruck said. "We could get a 
bumper crop next week."

Anyone who suspects someone has consumed poisonous mushrooms should call the 
poison control center at (800) 222-1222.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/3_from_franklin_gravely_ill_fr.html