Deadly mushrooms pop up in backyards after cool, wet weather prompting alert

Eating or touching poisonous fungi, including death cap and yellow-staining mushrooms, was extremely dangerous, Victoria's Chief Health Officer Dr Christian McGrath said on May 6.

"Consuming even a single death cap mushroom may result in death. Cooking, peeling or drying these mushrooms does not remove or inactivate the poison," Dr McGrath's warning said.

But he reassured the public that any mushrooms purchased from a supermarket or greengrocer were safe to eat.

Dr McGrath warned that children and animals should not touch the poisonous mushrooms.

"Remove any mushrooms growing in home gardens as young children and pets can easily eat them," he said.

Death cap mushrooms are extremely poisonous, the Victorian Department of Health said.

Symptoms usually start between six hours to one day after eating. Stomach pains, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea will normally begin within hours of ingesting the poison.

"These symptoms can then settle, giving a false sense of recovery, however the toxin will have entered the body's circulation and started causing serious harm, particularly to the liver, the health department said.

These pale-coloured mushrooms, typically 40 to 160 millimetres in diameter, usually grow under oak trees.

Yellow-staining mushrooms are responsible for the most poisonings in Victoria due to ingestion of wild fungi, the state health department said.

They cause stomach pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, but the intensity of symptoms depends on the amount eaten.

These mushrooms look deceptively similar to edible varieties, including field mushrooms, and commonly grow in urban areas.

If you suspect you or anyone in your care may have eaten a poisonous mushroom, do not wait for symptoms to occur.

Call the Victorian Poisons Information Centre immediately on 13 11 26 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Australia-wide) for appropriate advice.