Beware the death cap: East Bay parks officials warn about toxic mushrooms

East Bay parks officials say hikers should beware of an unusually large number of toxic — and potentially deadly — mushrooms sprouting across the region.

The East Bay Regional Parks District issued an advisory Tuesday warning park visitors about the fast-growing fungi, which include the death cap and western destroying angel varieties. Both species benefitted from a spate of early-season rain storms that allowed them to appear in greater volume than usual for this time of the year.

The warning comes after state health officials say at least 21 people appeared to be recently poisoned by death cap mushrooms across the state, including several in the Bay Area and in Monterey County, according to the Associated Press. The poisonings prompted the California Department of Public Health to advise against any wild mushroom foraging.

“The best way to stay safe is to ensure that no mushrooms are consumed by humans or pets,” the agency said in a press release. “As an added safety measure, learn to recognize poisonous mushroom species when encountering them in regional parks.”

The East Bay district does not allow mushroom foraging in any of its parks.

Park visitors should be particularly wary of death caps and western destroying angels, which contain amatoxins that can cause liver and kidney failure if consumed, the district said. Symptoms — which can include severe gastrointestinal distress — may not appear for 12 hours, after which the mushrooms can prove fatal if medial care is not sought immediately, the district said.

Some symptoms in people poisoned by the mushrooms could begin to ease after a while, even as they continue to ravage the body’s organs, the Associated Press reported.

Death caps typically have a “greenish-gray cap, white gills, a white ring around the stem and a large white sac at the base of the stem,” while western destroying angels can usually have “a creamy white cap, white gills, a white ring around the stem that can disappear with age and a thin white sac at the base,” the district’s release said.

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.