Death Cap

The death cap, Amanita phalloides, is a deadly poisonous basidiomycete fungus, native to Europe but spread since the late twentieth century to North America, Australia and South America along with the broadleaf and conifer trees it forms symbiotic relationships with. It is widely considered the most poisonous mushroom known, responsible for roughly 90 percent of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide, and as little as half a cap can kill an adult through its main toxin, alpha-amanitin, which causes liver and kidney failure. Its cap, 5 to 15 centimeters across, greenish but variable in color and flattening with age, sits above white gills and a white, ringed stem with a cup-like base; because it resembles edible species such as Caesar's mushroom, and its toxins survive cooking and freezing, accidental poisonings occur even though symptoms take six to twelve hours to appear.