Death-Cap Mushrooms Are Terrifying and Unstoppable

Most poisonous mushrooms won’t kill you—they’ll simply cause a severe headache or vomiting. Death-cap mushrooms are not like the others. As little as half an Amanita phalloides contains enough toxin to kill an adult human. Ingestion of the poison in death-cap mushrooms, known as amatoxin, is responsible for 90 percent of deaths related to mushroom poisoning worldwide. Worse still, death caps can resemble nontoxic mushrooms and are said to be quite tasty. You might not know you’ve been poisoned until days after eating the highly toxic fungi.

While the mushrooms are historically endemic to Scandinavia and parts of northern Europe, the cultivation of non-native species of trees in North America has led to a “mushroom boom” in some areas of the continent.

Life Up Close is a project of The Atlantic, supported by the HHMI Department of Science Education.

[DuffyElmer]

I can tell your animator loves mushrooms.

[ayde]

That animation was gorgeous. What a great narrative. Thank you

[profile]

Oh good something else to worry about.

[SykeMediaTV]

I feel we needed a little more information from this one!! :)

[kisielthest]

apex predators and the most intelligent species on earth
vs
one fungi boi

[cabbage-soup]

"mobilizing mushrooms" sounds like something from an tiny ant war
i love how this ends with "and there's no way you can stop them"
this is amazing

[GoldGalaxianFin]

Hello i am finnish and old mushroom picker. First thing to know about mushrooms.. *clears troath* Don't eat random mushrooms!

[tj]

Here after the Australian mushroom tragedy. This is so beautifully made and clearly explained. Thank you!

[brianpan]

I for one welcome our new mushroom overlords.

[RonenDalton-pkbj]

Psychedelic mushrooms really healed me years back. Totally got rid of depression, anxiety and illicit pill addiction.

[funny-video-YouTube-channel]

*The scarf under the cap* of the mushroom is a good indicator for poison.
There are exceptions, but most mushrooms with this scarf are poisonous in different amounts.

[tlw]

Would’ve been interesting to see at least one real image of a death cap somewhere in this piece, not that I can’t find one, just is more relevant.

[Panic_Pickle]

The scariest part is the way they kill you. Bit nauseous and out of it the night you eat them, then fine for a while until you start getting severe symptoms, by which time it’s too late to do anything about it.

[candycottonwithapple]

The animation is so gorgeous I just wanna watch it on loop. Kudos and all my admiration to the animation team

[Sorcerers_Apprentice]

There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old and bold mushroom hunters.


I prefer the name of the closely related Destroying Angel.

[preciousdevere]

This mushroom is dominating headlines currently with the mushroom poisoning in Australia.

[quinny]

I'm here because of the Australian case of the deathcap mushroom poison homicides. These mushrooms are so scary to think about omg

[ThomasJamesBeauchene]

Great graphics, more information please, I enjoy your videos!

[TrapGod_JackofAllTrades]

I have played enough rpgs to know how to solve this problem. Just give me a big sword and Ill go slay these mushrooms.

[twounits]

As soon as I heard him say “nitch” instead of niche, I wanted him to eat an amanita salad.