Destroying Angel vs Field Mushroom
The test that settles it
Agaricus gills turn pink then chocolate brown and the spore print is brown. Destroying angel gills stay white forever, and it has a volva.
Read this before anything else
- Never eat a wild mushroom identified by a website or an app.That includes this one. These tools narrow possibilities; they cannot see your mushroom, its base, its smell or its habitat, and the difference between a meal and a liver transplant is sometimes a feature buried in the soil.
- Get it confirmed in person by an experienced local forager or a mycological society. Most regions have one, most run free identification sessions, and they will look at the actual specimen.
- Dig, do not pull. The cup at the base of a death cap is often underground. Pulling the mushroom leaves the most important feature in the soil.
- If someone has eaten a wild mushroom and feels unwell, call poison control now — in the US, 1-800-222-1222. Do not wait for symptoms to worsen. Amatoxin poisoning has a false recovery phase, and delayed treatment is what makes it fatal. Save any uneaten pieces for identification.
Destroying Angel
Can killAmanita bisporigera and relatives
- Under the cap
- gills
- Spore print
- white
- Growing on
- soil, hardwood litter, conifer litter
- Stem
- White, often slightly shaggy, with a delicate ring near the top and a prominent membranous cup at the base.
- If eaten
- Deadly. Amatoxin poisoning with the same delayed onset and false-recovery pattern as the death cap. Emergency treatment is required and outcomes depend heavily on how early it starts.
Field Mushroom
No known toxinsAgaricus campestris
- Under the cap
- gills
- Spore print
- brown, purple-black
- Growing on
- grass, soil
- Stem
- Short, white, with a fairly delicate ring and no cup or sac at the base.
- If eaten
- No significant toxins, and widely eaten. But this is the species people confuse with destroying angels, with fatal results. If the gills are white, stop. Confirm with an expert.
Confirming destroying angel
- Completely white — cap, gills, stem and spore print.
- Ring on the stem and a membranous sac at the base.
- Growing from the ground, never on wood.
- Gills free of the stem, not running down it.
Confirming field mushroom
- Gills start pink and mature to chocolate brown. Gills that stay white are a serious warning.
- Brown to purple-brown spore print.
- No cup or sac at the stem base. Dig it up and check.
- Growing in grass, typically in grazed pasture rather than woodland.
Still not certain?
Then you have your answer, and it is not to eat it. Run the full key, then take the specimen to someone who can hold it.
Identify it step by step