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cm2012

No mushroom exists in the world that can poison you through touching it. Even licking. Your body has to digest it.

Edit: I'm currently at -5 but this is a fact.

http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/Lect17a.htm

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/studying.html#odortaste

https://www.reddit.com/r/mycology/comments/2ps3q5/are_there_...

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There is one mushroom called the Poison Fire Coral that can poison through touch. It just made the news rounds for being found for the first time in North Queensland.

https://www.jcu.edu.au/news/releases/2019/october/deadly-fun...

Cool, so there is an exception of 1!

“If found, the fungus should not be touched, and definitely not eaten. Of the hundred or so toxic mushrooms that are known to researchers, this is the only one in which the toxins can be absorbed through the skin,” said Dr Barrett, a mycologist from the JCU Australian Tropical Herbarium (ATH) who specialises in the study of fungi.

Wow! So deadly, but so beautiful!

I love mushrooms!

Wow, that thing just screams "I'm dangerous, don't eat me!"

Though the contact symptoms are described as dermatitis, not gross toxicity. Still a good idea not to handle it.

Even if you touch it and then lick your fingers?

Yes, even if.

Source please.

There is literally only one known in the world (as linked above) - "poison fire coral" which is described[0] by a researcher as such: "Of the hundred or so toxic mushrooms that are known to researchers, this is the only one in which the toxins can be absorbed through the skin"

[0] https://www.jcu.edu.au/news/releases/2019/october/deadly-fun...

At least in the U.S. and Canada, there are no mushrooms where if a healthy adult nibbles on them to taste them and then spits them out, they will be anywhere close to the LD50. You might still get some minor liver damage or whatever, but not enough to kill you. This is as opposed to plants, where people have died just from putting water hemlock twigs in their mouths to play with.

There are a bunch of similar-looking species where the proper way to ID them to know if they're edible or not is actually to nibble on them and then just spit them out.

> At least in the U.S. and Canada, there are no mushrooms where if a healthy adult nibbles on them to taste them and then spits them out, they will be anywhere close to the LD50

LD50 is the dose that kills 50% of a test population. I don't think I'd try something if the only assurance I had that it was safe is that it is not anywhere near LD50.

> I don't think I'd try something if the only assurance I had that it was safe is that it is not anywhere near LD50.

Ever drink coffee or alcohol?

Keep in mind I'm definitely not saying it's safe, only that you're not going to die from acute toxicity.

Sure, if you ever consume an LD50 of alcohol you have a 1 in 2 chance to die.

Most people never drink a comparable amount though.

Wow I never even heard of hemlock before. Good to know!

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