Floods’ Lethal Legacy: Forests of Mushrooms
Austria’s worst flooding in centuries left behind a deadly legacy: a bumper crop of mushrooms that’s luring amateur pickers to forests--and sending some to the hospital.
At least two people have died after eating poisonous mushrooms, and scores have sought treatment, said Dr. Helmut Schiel of Austria’s poison control center.
Heavy rains last month created perfect conditions for the growth of mushrooms and other fungi.
Of the 3,000 kinds of mushrooms in Austria, only a couple of hundred varieties are edible. Two hundred are strongly poisonous, and 10 are deadly.
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