Cortinarius rubellus · Cortinariaceae
A modest orange-brown mushroom whose poison destroys the kidneys weeks after the meal.
Deadly poisonous. DEADLY. Orellanine causes kidney failure 2-21 days after eating, long after anyone connects it with the meal. This is the species that poisoned the Nicholas Evans party in 2008.
Read the full foraging safety guidance.
August to November
Chanterelles (which have ridges and no true gills) and edible brown-gilled species. Any cobwebby veil plus rusty spores means walk away.
Never eat. Treat all Cortinarius species as off limits.
Amanita virosa
Pure white, elegant and lethal. The one to check for whenever you pick a white mushroom.
Galerina marginata
A small brown mushroom on dead wood carrying the same toxins as the Death Cap.
Paxillus involutus
Once eaten widely in Europe, now known to cause a fatal immune reaction that builds up over repeated meals.
