06/03/2026
I was shooting some plant ID photos in some woods at a local park this week, and yesterday there was a birthday party with several children in attendance, ranging from toddlars to 10 yr olds, in one of the areas I had been working.
I knew very well that Amanita Bisporigera, the version of the deadly destroying angel mushroom we have here in the eastern US, is popping up all over that area right now.
It's part of what I had been there to take images of for my own workshops three days in a row, so I decided to hold a quick identification workshop on Amanita Bisporigera, to inspire the mothers to keep a close eye on what their younger children were doing.
Having done that, knowing from my own personal experiences how small children are drawn to bright colored mushrooms that stand out from their surroundings, I thought I'd make a post on it here as well.
Aminita Bisporigera is one of the most dangerous, and insidiously deadly, mushrooms in our region. It can, especially to small children, appear much like the white button mushrooms sold in grocery stores and seen at salad bars in its early stages.
How tall it grows, and how high or low on the shaft the skirt is, depends largey on how much debris and detritus it has to grow through, and how much it struggles doing so.
Sometimes the skirt is right under the cap, or down next to the ball at the base and hard to see. Other times it is visible somewhere along the shaft
For a size referrence the knife in the images, the stainless version of Cold Steel SRK and my favorite wet weather field knife, has 6 inch blade.
~Brian
