Livid pinkgillEntoloma sinuatum

30 minutes — 2 hours after the meal, severe nausea, repeated vomiting and exhausting diarrhea will set in. Call an ambulance immediately — 112 or your local emergency number. Collect the remains of the mushroom and any vomit in a bag — the doctor will need to identify the culprit. Don't try to “drink lots of water” or “make yourself vomit” on your own — that's done by a doctor in hospital. The outlook is good if you get help quickly, but liver and kidney damage is possible, so follow-up blood tests are a must.

Two fundamental differences. (1) Gills: in a young Agaricus they are pink, then chocolate-brown, and in an old one almost black. In Entoloma the gills are whitish at first, then turn pinkish-salmon and stay that way. (2) Spore print: in Agaricus it's dark brown or blackish-brown, in Entoloma pinkish-brown. Taking a print is easy: cut off the cap, lay it gills down on white paper, cover with a glass, and check the color after 2-6 hours.

NO. The toxins of Entoloma sinuatum are heat-stable — boiling, pickling, drying and freezing do not destroy them. No method of preparation makes this mushroom safe. Not eating it is the only right approach.

In deciduous and mixed forests, most often under oak, beech, hornbeam, hazel. It forms mycorrhiza — meaning it is tied to specific trees. It does NOT grow in meadows or open fields (this sets it apart from the field mushroom). It often grows in rings ("fairy rings") of 5-20 mushrooms. It likes rich, moist, alkaline soils.

The forest-steppe zone (Western, Right-Bank and Left-Bank Forest-Steppe), Polissia, the Carpathians and Prykarpattia, less often in the ravine forests of the Steppe. Most common in the oak and beech forests of Podillia, Kyiv region, Poltava region and the Carpathians.

Late July — October, peaking in August-September. It loves a warm, damp autumn. It does not appear in the cold months (November-May).

With three edible groups: (1) Agaricus mushrooms — checking the spore print saves you (blackish-brown in Agaricus, pink in Entoloma). (2) Knights (Tricholoma) — knights have a spore print that is white, never pink. (3) The shield pinkgill (Entoloma clypeatum) — an edible relative that grows in spring under rosaceous trees (apple, plum, hawthorn). Tell them apart by season (shield pinkgill — May-June, livid pinkgill — August-October) and by habitat.

The death cap (Amanita phalloides) is a different kind of poison: deadly poisonous, with a slow-acting toxin (amatoxin), no immediate symptoms, a ring on the stem and a volva at the base. Entoloma sinuatum has no ring and no volva, and it poisons violently and quickly, but the outlook is better. These are two different kinds of danger: the death cap is quiet and kills within one to three days, the livid pinkgill is loud and wears you out over one to two days without high mortality.