Why mushrooms poisoning is so dangerous?
In: Biology
Is the question, why did they evolve to be dangerous or why chemically or something else?
Mushrooms don’t want to be eaten, so many fungi fill them with toxins to deter consumption. Some symptoms are mild, some are more serious and some are lethal.
This isn’t actually all that special, plenty of plants are also filled to the brim with harmful or even lethal toxins.
One of the big differences is foragers are more likely to mistake a harmful or deadly mushroom for a harmless edible one than they would a dangerous plant or even poisonous berries. Mushroom identification can be very difficult in many cases and some of the most lethal ones out there like Death Caps and Destroying Angels are just plain white mushrooms, no warning colors or really distinct features that sets them apart at a glance.
Well there are some mushrooms that the poison has a long latent period where it initially causes gastrointestinal disturbances. These symptoms last for a day or three but organ failure has already begun. Person gets discharged from hospital and can die within several days of being discharged. Mushroom identification can be very difficult as many have overlapping identifying criteria.
There are many kinds of mushrooms (at least here). Some of them are edible, some of them are not. Some of them are edible but offer culinary joys similar to a leather belt. Most of the “poisonous” mushrooms either are dangerous in a large quantity, and mostly cause relatively mild symptoms like vomiting. Some are dangerous only if not cooked long enough or if consumed with alcohol. And there’s the death cap, which is one of the deadliest mushroom (10-30% according to Wikipedia). The main issue here is that it targets the liver, and by the time you show symptoms your liver is beyond saving
Because they’re so *easy* to poison yourself with. A lot of toxic mushrooms taste, smell, feel, and look very similar to edible ones. And the “makes you barf for six hours and then it’s over” poisonous mushrooms and the “melts your liver and kills you in six hours” mushrooms also look similar to each other. And some of the less poisonous mushrooms can be made edible if you cook them right, but cooking them right is really hard and you might [trip balls](http://thetinctorial.blogspot.com/2007/05/great-mushroom-article.html?m=1) for a while even if you don’t get sick.
As for why mushrooms as a particular group have such nasty poisons? Fungi are old. Evolution is an arms race between poisonous organisms developing new poisons and other organisms developing new defenses, and fungi have had a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG ASS TIME to develop new and interesting poisons.
I don’t think that others have addressed this, but as far as I can surmise, the mushroom we can see is the reproductive organ of the organism. Unlike with other plants, there is no advantage to decreasing the mushroom. Thus, a poisonous or duplicate appearance mushroom would be more likely to have descendants than a mushroom that had no connection to poison.
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