Funeral Bell
Galerina marginata · Hymenogastraceae
Also called Deadly Galerina
A small brown mushroom on dead wood carrying the same toxins as the Death Cap.
Deadly poisonous. DEADLY. Contains amatoxins. Never pick clustered small brown mushrooms from wood without a spore print: white print for Velvet Shank, rusty for this killer.
Read the full foraging safety guidance.
Season
August to November
Where it grows
- Dead conifer wood
- Dead broadleaf wood
- Stumps
Identification
- Cap
- 2-5cm, tawny to date-brown, hygrophanous, drying much paler from the centre.
- Gills / pores
- Adnate, ochre then rusty brown.
- Stem
- Slender, brown, with a small ring or ring zone, whitish fibres below.
- Flesh
- Thin, brown.
- Spore print
- RUSTY BROWN.
- Smell & taste
- Faintly mealy.
Lookalikes
Velvet Shank, Sheathed Woodtuft and Honey Fungus, all picked from wood. The rusty spore print is the giveaway.
In the kitchen
Never eat.
Also deadly
Death Cap
Amanita phalloides
Responsible for the great majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide. Learn this one before anything else.
Destroying Angel
Amanita virosa
Pure white, elegant and lethal. The one to check for whenever you pick a white mushroom.
Deadly Webcap
Cortinarius rubellus
A modest orange-brown mushroom whose poison destroys the kidneys weeks after the meal.