Tiger tricholomaTricholoma pardinum

Six features taken together. (1) Large size — cap 8-15 cm (sometimes up to 20), very fleshy, heavy. (2) Distinctly scaly, concentric "leopard" spots on a grayish-white cap — not streaks, but actual scales. (3) Very thick flesh, fleshy stem (2-4 cm thick). (4) White gills and white flesh, with no yellowish tint. (5) Mealy smell (not soapy). (6) Grows in deciduous and mixed forests on limestone soils. In doubt — do NOT take it.

Just 30-50 g of raw or undercooked mushroom is enough to cause gastroenteritis in an adult. For children the dose is smaller. Boiling does not fully neutralize the toxins. There is no "safe dose" — this mushroom is not food in any form.

Call an ambulance immediately — 112 or your local emergency number, even before symptoms appear. Save a sample of the mushroom (fresh or from vomit). If vomiting starts — do NOT suppress it (it is the body's natural cleansing). Drink plenty of oral rehydration solution (Regidron). In hospital — intravenous rehydration, monitoring of electrolytes and kidneys. Do not take loperamide or drink milk!

T. portentosum is slimmer (5-12 cm), with fine radial streaks on the cap (not scales!), yellowish gills and flesh in the stem, grows in pine forests. T. pardinum is much larger and fleshier, a cap with distinct gray scales in concentric rows, pure white gills and flesh with no yellow, grows in deciduous and mixed forests on limestone. The key check: scales or streaks? Yellowish gills or white?

T. terreum is much smaller (3-8 cm), with a cap that is downy and felty (like a mouse's fur), not scaly and spotted. The key difference is the size and texture of the cap: small and downy — that's T. terreum (conditionally edible); large, scaly and spotted — that's T. pardinum (poisonous).

Under normal circumstances — no (among healthy adults there are practically no deaths with adequate rehydration). But there is a real risk for children under 5, people over 70 with cardiovascular disease, and people with kidney failure — through complications of severe dehydration (collapse, kidney failure, cardiac arrhythmia). Severity depends on how much was eaten and how quickly medical help arrives.

In deciduous and mixed forests on limestone or carbonate soils — beech, oak and hornbeam forests on base-rich soil. On the forest floor among grass and moss. In young plantings and in mature dry forests. It does NOT occur in pine forests on sandy soils.

Mostly in the Carpathians and Prykarpattia (Zakarpattia, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions) — beech forests on limestone. Its range is expanding eastward — in recent decades it has been found more often in western Podillia (Ternopil and Khmelnytskyi regions) and in part Polissia.

August — November, peaking in September–October. This coincides with the main season of edible knights — hence the risk of picking it by mistake.

Sadly, yes — there have been cases in the Carpathians and Prykarpattia where inexperienced foragers sold it as a "big gray knight". Buy mushrooms only from trusted sellers, and identify what you buy yourself. Large gray knights with scales are a risky mushroom; better to walk past and pick up saffron milk caps, slippery jacks or honey fungus at the market instead.