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These mushrooms contain toxins that destroy cells in the liver and kidneys. Five to 24 hours after eating one of these toxic mushrooms people may become sick with nausea and stomach problems. Later, severe liver and kidney damage may occur, often resulting in death.

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Visualy these are the classic "toadstool" with a bright red to orange cap covered in white flecks and a strong white stem and gills.

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The muscaria and a few others are not poisonous nor are they really hallucinogenic.

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William Rubel said:
My own interest in A. muscaria is culinary. My interest was piqued many years ago when I read a field guide that said that while the mushroom is poisonous, in Japan it is pickled and eaten as food. Reading this I called my mycologist friend, David Arora, author of Mushrooms Demystified, and All the Rain Promises, and more. David lists A. muscaria as poisonous in the current editions of his books. The first reference book he turned to after I called him said that the mushrooom is poisonous, but that the author had a friend who eats it regularly with no ill effects. Stating that A. muscaria is poisonous, but that it is commonly eaten as food by a friend or by people somewhere else, is a recurring feature of books on mushrooms. As early as 1900, George Atkins wrote in his book, Studies of American Fungi, that while the mushroom is "deadly as ordinarily found," it is eaten ". . . as food in parts of France & Russia, and it has been eaten repeatedly in certain locatities in this country without harm."

Foreign authors write in the same vein. A recent Lithuanian field guide states that the mushroom is poisonous, but that it is eaten in the mountains of France and Austria. The most popular Italian field guide, Bruno Cetto's I funghi dal vero, volume 1 says that muscaria is poisonous, but that it is eaten cooked and pickled in Russia, France, and in the Lake Garda region of the Italian Alps.

So, what is going on? First, there is the old semantic problem that by custom all mushrooms are labled poisonous, whether they might make you a little sick or whether they might send you to your grave. Also, no effort is made to clarify whether a mushroom's ill effects are countered by cooking -- which they often are. While field guides are accurate guides to classification, in the area of edibility, they can be more of a guide to local preference and prejudice than scientifically accurate.

Consider, outside the realm of fungus, the case of the famous puffer fish. This fish is clearly highly toxic. A small amount of puffer fish toxin kills you. On the other hand, prepared properly, if the organs, such as the liver, are removed without puncturing, it is perfectly safe to eat and is, in fact, eaten in great quantity, and at great cost, most famously in Japan. American food magazines frequently run glossy spreads on Japanese fugu restaruants. If the same attitude were applied to a mushroom such as A. muscaria, a food far less dangerous than puffer f ish, mushroom field guides would not label the mushroom poisonous, and it would be served in restaurants -- as it is in Japan in the Nagano Perfecture.

Despite references to the mushroom as being "poisonous" I figured that there were enough references to pickling the mushroom that it would be safe to eat it if I began culinary preparations the way mushroom pickling is begun -- with boiling. In consultation with David Arora I begin eating A. muscaria after having boiled it in lightly salted water for a few minutes. Even though I had confidence that the boiled mushroom would be pefectly safe to eat, I worked up, one day at a time, from a tiny piece of cap, to a quarter cap, to half a cap, to a whole cap, and the only effect, which increased as the quantity of cap eaten increased, was one of great pleasure, because the Santa Cruz, California, variant of A. muscaria is big, thick, and sweet tasting.

Since the initial testing period, David has fed hundrds of people A. muscaria with no ill effect. David has also now visited Nagano Prefecture, Japan, and seen the Japanese A. muscaria harvest, eaten at a restaurant that serves the mushroom, and tasted the famous Japanese muscaria pickles. One of his photographs from that trip is published below.

In addtion to A. muscaria's reputation as a drug for shamans, or as a pickle for a Japanese meal, I'd like to add that to mushroom collectors muscaria is known as a beacon, an omen of good tidings. It is what mushroom collectors call an "indicator" mushroom. Where muscaria is growing boletus edulis, the porcini of Italy, is likely to grow too.

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