Ivory funnelClitocybe dealbata

Within 15-60 minutes — sudden heavy salivation, sweating that soaks through your clothes, watering eyes, runny nose, a feeling of suffocation, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, slow heartbeat. Call 112 or your local emergency number immediately. Put the mushroom remains in a bag for identification. In hospital you'll be given the antidote — atropine. With prompt care (1-2 hours) the prognosis is good. Never treat yourself with atropine — at the wrong dose it is lethal.

Two key features. (1) Gills: in the field mushroom they are pink when young, chocolate-brown when mature, almost black when old. In the ivory funnel they are always white and decurrent down the stem. (2) Spore print: dark brownish-black in the field mushroom, white in the ivory funnel. Before cooking, ALWAYS take a spore print from one mushroom in the batch: cut off the cap, place it gills down on white paper, and check the color after 4-6 hours. If it's white, it's not a field mushroom.

No. Muscarine is heat-stable — boiling, pickling, drying and freezing do not destroy it. No method of preparation makes this mushroom safe. This is a fundamental difference from, say, the false morel, whose toxins are partly washed out by water — in the ivory funnel they remain after any processing.

In meadows and pastures, gardens, parks, along woodland edges and in forest clearings. It loves open grassy places with moist alkaline soils. It often grows in groups and rings ("fairy rings") of 10-50 mushrooms. This sets it apart from ordinary woodland Clitocybe, which grow deeper in the forest.

Throughout the forest and forest-steppe zones; in the steppe — in parks and shelterbelts. A common species — found in every region. Especially often on cultivated meadows, in gardens, on dacha plots and next to vegetable patches.

August — November, peaking in September-October. This overlaps with the season of field mushrooms and fairy ring champignons — and that is where the main risk of confusion comes from.

With the field mushroom (Agaricus campestris) — most often and most fatally. With the fairy ring champignon (Marasmius oreades) — an edible mushroom of the same meadows. With young St George's mushroom (Calocybe gambosa) — a spring species, but sometimes with an autumn flush. General rule: in meadows and pastures, do NOT pick small white mushrooms without checking the spore print. If the spore print is white, it is definitely not a field mushroom (its print is dark brown). But the fairy ring champignon and St George's mushroom also give a white print, so the print won't tell them apart from the ivory funnel. The fairy ring champignon has widely spaced gills that don't run down the stem, and a tough, springy stem you can twist without it snapping. The ivory funnel has crowded gills that run down the stem, and its stem breaks easily. White spore print + small white mushroom in a meadow = ivory funnel risk.

Yes — that is the main risk. In a haul of fairy ring champignons or young field mushrooms, one ivory funnel among a dozen good ones can slip through unnoticed. The rule: at home, sort through every mushroom individually, checking the features. If you find even one with white decurrent gills + a white spore print — throw out the whole batch, because juices rubbing off in transit can carry muscarine onto neighboring mushrooms.