Mushroom expert: “There have already been several calls to the poison control center today.”

What can you find now?

The russulas are starting to appear now, as are various boletes. There was a glut of porcini mushrooms in northern Brandenburg, but now they're already quite rotten.

You also manage the poison hotline. Have you received any calls yet? Several today alone. Mostly they're about children who've nibbled on a mushroom, which naturally worries the parents. So far, though, there hasn't been anything dangerous. One child nibbled on a bolete, so nothing can happen. The other was meadow mushrooms, which sometimes grow in kindergartens. Mostly hay manure mushrooms, which are unproblematic, although there are also hallucinogenic mushrooms in the group. But there haven't been any accidents with them so far.

Do you have photos of the mushrooms sent to you, or how do you identify a possible poisonous mushroom?

I'm already having photos sent to me, and if they allow me to identify it, I'll let you know right away. If not, the mushroom has to be brought in. I might have to examine it under a microscope. If a hospital calls, they might even bring me a portion of its stomach contents.

So there have been no serious poisonings this year?

Yes, it is. A few months ago, there was a poisoning case with a potentially deadly poisonous mushroom, the brick-red cracked mushroom. It's often confused with the May mushroom.

Which other mushroom in our latitudes offers the worst risk of confusion?

This is the death cap mushroom. There are cases of poisoning with it every year. Often, this affects people from other countries, migrants, who mistake the death cap mushroom for a mushroom native to their homeland and edible. We once had a Chinese wedding party where 40 people were treated to the death cap mushroom.

No!

Yes, they brought me a plastic bag containing two kilos, which they also wanted to eat. Looking at that bag was like a death sentence. But they all survived, although some needed liver transplants. But that was decades ago.

Where did the wedding party find the mushrooms?

In the Berlin area, a Vietnamese family also became poisoned with the death cap mushroom last year. The symptoms only appear after two days, and only then did they call. They survived, too, but it was really by luck. A lot of things happen. People are too careless.

What do you think about mushroom apps for identifying mushrooms?

Not much.

Can this at least rule out the possibility of eating a poisonous mushroom?

Definitely not, although there are apps of varying quality. Some require the mushroom to be photographed from below, which is very important because only from below can you identify key features. And you have to see the stem bulb. If a mushroom is only photographed from above, you can't identify it properly.

Dare to make a prediction: Will this be a good mushroom year?

Partly. At some point, there will be a mass explosion, because the mushrooms have to reproduce. It's also been raining a lot. The fact that there are still no chanterelles south of Berlin is because there wasn't enough rain in the spring, when they're growing. But of course, there are many other mushrooms that will now grow because of the heavy rain. There are just big differences locally.