Gyromitra esculenta · Discinaceae
Also called Turban Fungus
A spring lookalike for the morel with a lobed brain-like cap. Its toxin is related to rocket fuel.
Deadly poisonous. DEADLY. Contains gyromitrin, which becomes monomethylhydrazine. It is volatile and cumulative, and has killed people even after the traditional boiling. The vapour alone is hazardous.
Read the full foraging safety guidance.
March to May
True Morels have a honeycomb of pits and ridges and are completely hollow inside from tip to base.
Never eat. Slice every spring find lengthways: pitted and hollow is a morel, brain-like and chambered is this.
Amanita virosa
Pure white, elegant and lethal. The one to check for whenever you pick a white mushroom.
Cortinarius rubellus
A modest orange-brown mushroom whose poison destroys the kidneys weeks after the meal.
Galerina marginata
A small brown mushroom on dead wood carrying the same toxins as the Death Cap.
