Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 13, 2011

Galerina marginata is a species of poisonous fungus in the Hymenogastraceae family of the Agaricales order. It is a classic "little brown mushroom"—a catchall category that includes all small to medium-sized, hard-to-identify brownish mushrooms, and may be easily confused with several edible species. Widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, including Europe, North America and Asia, Galerina marginata has also been found in Australia. It is a wood-rotting fungus that grows predominantly on decaying conifer wood. An extremely poisonous species, it contains the same deadly amatoxins found in the death cap (Amanita phalloides). Ingestion in toxic amounts causes severe liver damage with vomiting, diarrhea, hypothermia, and eventual death if not treated rapidly. About ten poisonings have been attributed to the species now grouped as G. marginata over the last century. (more...)

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