In August of 2008, Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse Whisperer, and three friends, including his wife, consumed Cortinarius speciosissimus, a deadly mushroom, sometimes known as a Deadly Webcap. They had mistaken them for chanterelles in the Scottish countryside.
For the past year the four of them have been on dialysis in renal units in the United Kingdom and are currently on kidney transplant lists. Their conditions require 15 hours of dialysis a week. Of course, many people are poisoned by mushrooms each year. Often, the culprit are lookalike mushrooms, or the incorrect assumption that what one sees in a field guide is going to be what was picked, or just the lack of importance being placed on the toxicity of a select bunch of mushrooms.
What this article in last week's Scotland On Sunday website focuses on is the lack of proper experts to identify mushrooms in Scotland.
What I think this event points out is that there are still lots of people who take unnecessary chances, combined with lots of wives' tales and misinformation about mushrooms. Look no further than the comments section of the Scotland on Sunday article where "Commentator #4" calls people idiots and then proceeds to quote one of the biggest mistruths about poisonous mushrooms, only to be (rightfully) chided and corrected by "Commentator #7."
Know your mushrooms.
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