It depends on the mushroom.

Most people probably buy their mushrooms from a grocery store, but the more nature-loving segment of the population might want to glean them from the wild.

If there’s anything wild mushroom hunters need to know, it’s this: Know what you’re doing.

Otherwise, you might have to make a call to your physician thusly: “Doctor, my child ate a mushroom and now he’s sick.”

A destroying angel mushroom is as dangerous as it sounds. (Photo courtesy of James. St. John)

That was the title of the Aug. 10 installment of the “Science on Tap” series, sponsored by the Northern Michigan University chapter of Sigma Xi at the Ore Dock Brewing Co. in Marquette.

Dr. James Addison, a local physician and mycology enthusiast, was the featured speaker.

“Each year in the United States, there are four to five deaths reported from ingestion of poison mushrooms,” Addison said. “The majority of exposures, fortunately, are not serious. They caused stomach upsets and vomiting, diarrhea, things that are going to be self-limited (that) people will recover from.”

Others are more serious.

“Some people will die, and some will develop problems that require significant and intensive medical care,” Addison said.

UP Health System-Marquette, he noted, usually receives one or two mushroom-related calls per year, with a half dozen “significant poisonings” seen in the last decade.

How do these happen?

Mistaken identity is one culprit.

“If somebody eats something, they think they know what it is,” Addison said. “They really don’t know what it is, and it makes them sick.”

Inadvertent ingestion can happen as well, with curious toddlers, for example, being prone to put anything they encounter in their mouths.

“Many of the calls that I get each year are about toddlers that were out in the backyard,” Addison said. “They put something in their mouth, and fortunately, the majority of these don’t result in significant illness.”

He noted the most important factor regarding mushroom poisonings is a huge increase in foraging for wild foods over the last decade or two, which results in amateurs looking for those foods without properly identifying them.

According to Michigan State University Extension, at least 50 of the largest species of wild mushrooms that grow in Michigan are known to be poisonous, and there might be more.

“You cannot determine whether a mushroom is poisonous or safe by any easy, magic method,” an Extension bulletin reads. “You must learn to positively identify each individual mushroom you pick for food.”

Addison addressed various symptoms that suggest mushroom poisoning.

“Are they sick to their stomach, or are they having visions or hallucinations?” Addison asked. “Do they have excessive salivation or are they tearing up, or being incontinent of urine?”

Some mushroom toxins, he pointed out, don’t cause toxicity until they’re ingested about the time alcohol is ingested.

Timing also should be considered.

“How long did it take for them to get sick after they ate the mushroom?” Addison asked.

Early-onset toxins usually cause symptoms within the first six hours after ingestion, while late-onset toxins often don’t have any effect for 12 hours to even several weeks after consuming them.

“So that makes it somewhat difficult to determine whether there is a specific relationship between ingestion of a mushroom and onset of illness,” Addison said.

Some instances are more obvious.

He related the tale of a group of NMU students who visited their dorm’s “psychopharmacologist” to acquire and consume mushrooms.

“About an hour later, they weren’t feeling well,” Addison said. “They felt different. So, one of them suggested that maybe the pscyhopharmacologist didn’t know what he was doing, and they’d been poisoned.”

The students went to the Emergency Department for treatment.

“It was actually kind of amusing because they were sort of wandering around,” said Addison, who noted it was clear just from their presentation they had taken hallucinogenic mushrooms.

What were affected, he said, were parts of their brains that are primarily responsible for emotions.

“So, they were feeling weird,” Addison said. “I mean, isn’t that what they bought the mushrooms for?”

He said that usually a situation like this resolves itself without intervention, although people who are particularly disturbed by their hallucinations will be given something like valium.

Not every mushroom species is dangerous. However, Addison said to be particularly aware of the Amanita group of mushrooms.

In fact, it’s noted at AmericanMushrooms.com that some of these mushrooms, like the death cap and destroying angel, are deadly poisonous.

Intravenous fluids and activated charcoal can be used to treat these poisonings as well as those from the Galerina group, Addison said. Early treatment with certain drugs also can help toxicity from occurring.

Of course, even if the effects aren’t serious, most people don’t want to become sick from mushrooms in the first place. So, how can they avoid having to be treated?

Addison’s first recommendation is: “If you can’t identify a mushroom species, don’t eat it, OK? That’s called ‘Addison’s rule’ — and it’s a big rule.”

However, he suggested that people interested in wild mushrooming join the North American Mycological Association.

“They have great literature,” Addison said. “They have great forays all over the country, and if you’re interested in mushrooming, go to one of these forays.”

Information on the organization can be found at namyco.org.

He gave another crucial piece of advice: “If you eat a mushroom and you start feeling sick, tell somebody. Don’t wait.”

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.

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