Beautiful, isn’t it? A pretty white mushroom in the Amanita genus. Wouldn’t you just love to pick it, bring it home, and fry it up? Maybe not this mushroom. This is known as the Destroying Angel, and it is deadly. Like the Death Cap, the Destroying Angel contains amatoxins. There are ways to identify this mushroom. Do you see how the gills are not attached to the stalk inside up at the top? That’s a classic clue. Another telltale sign is the universal veil that has burst as the mushroom grew through it. See how it fans out from the stalk like a little skirt? Other mushrooms have this feature, but along with the unattached gills, you’ll know you are looking at a Destroying Angel.
The Destroying Angel and the Death Cap are responsible for most of the deaths that occur from mushroom consumption. It is important to be able to identify these mushrooms. The Death Cap used to be only a European problem, but there have been reports of it now in America. Still, the mushroom you want to be most careful of here in America is the Destroying Angel.
What an odd name. The
Destroying Angel. Is it because of her
beauty that they call her angel? We know
why they call her destroying. Is it
because of her otherworldly appearance?
Is it because she promises one thing by her appearance but delivers
something terribly different? I suspect
it is because most cultures have stories in one form or another about an angel
of death who appears when a person is dying.
There is the guardian angel for the living and the angel of death for
the dying. As for me, I will be on the
lookout for this beautiful angel and will avoid her for as long as I can!
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| The Destroying Angel in all her glory. |
