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By Ollie Reed Jr. / Journal Staff Writer Published: Monday, August 29th, 2022 at 9:02PM Updated: Tuesday, August 30th, 2022 at 12:02AM

That’s good advice this year when persistent monsoon rains have turned New Mexico mountain sides, forests and backyards into a grower’s market display of wild mushrooms, some of them enough to make you sick to the stomach – or worse.

Susan Smolinske, director of the New Mexico Poison & Drug Information Center, said there have been 42 cases of mushroom poisonings reported in the state as of midday Monday, one more than in all of 2021.

“And a lot of it is from people deliberately looking for them in their backyard, not accidents caused by a kid putting one in his mouth,” Smolinske said.

There are thousands of mushroom species known to exist in the world. Some are edible, even sought-after culinary treasures, but there are eight toxic groups in the fungi family.

“New Mexico has something in each of those toxic groups,” Smolinske said. “The gastrointestinal group grows on lawns. They can cause projectile vomiting and projectile diarrhea. You get pretty dehydrated pretty quickly. If you get to a hospital you can be treated. They are going to give you lots of fluids.”

An example of this type of mushroom found in New Mexico is Chlorophyllum, also known as false parasol, green-spored Lepiota and – appropriately enough – vomiter. It is the most commonly misidentified poisonous mushroom in this country, often confused with the edible parasol mushroom.

Symptoms caused by ingesting mushrooms from the gastrointestinal group are usually prompt, an indication that the consequences will be less serious.

Smolinske said it is the time bomb mushrooms, those that do not display symptoms until six to 12 hours after consumption, that can be deadly.

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“A person might have ingested a mushroom with deadly amatoxin that have high fatality rates,” she said.

Amanita phalloides, also known as the death cap, belongs to this group. It’s here in New Mexico.

“Amatoxins attack your liver, kidney and other organs, and that means you are not going to do well,” Smolinske said.

Smolinske said there have be no deaths due to mushroom poisoning in New Mexico dating back to 1998, as far as she could track in her records, and only 12 life-threatening cases during that period.

“We are fortunate in New Mexico that the most deadly (mushrooms) are not prevalent here,” she said. “We do have them here, but they are not commonly found. In the Pacific Northwest and California a lot more deadly species are common.”

However, 30 to 40 cases of mushroom poisoning are reported in the state each year. There were 31 cases in 2020 and 34 in 2019.

That’s not a lot when you consider the Poison & Drug Information Center handles 20,000 calls a year involving poisonings caused by plants, rattlesnakes, medications, household products and more.

The center serves the state, but it is part of the University of New Mexico’s College of Pharmacy. Smolinske, the center’s director for eight years, is a doctor of pharmacy. She was born in Pennsylvania, but has lived in Florida, Indiana, Colorado and, for 20 years in Michigan.

“I learned a lot about mushrooms in Michigan,” she said. “They grow better there than in New Mexico.”

Smolinske said mushrooms typically grow in New Mexico from April through September, and that different mushrooms grow here in the spring than in the fall.

Although deaths caused by mushroom poisoning have not been a factor in the state, Smolinske said there have been hospitalizations this year and the center takes cases seriously. She said people experiencing symptoms should call the Poison & Drug Information Center hotline at 1-800-222-1222.

The center needs to know how many meals with mushrooms a person ate, how much that person ate and how many other people ate it.

“The time of exposure dates to the first mushroom you ate, not the last,” Smolinske said. “That’s why we need to know when you had your first meal with the mushrooms.”

She said the center also wants to know where the mushrooms were growing – on wood, in grass, by itself or in clumps.

“We always try to identify the mushroom, and it is helpful to know where it was growing,” Smolinske said. “Amanita (a toxic genus) likes to grow under trees.”

She said if persons contacting the center hotline have a digital camera, photos of the mushrooms can be helpful.

“The images should be well-lit and in focus, showing the top of the cap, the gills, the stem and any features at the base of the stem,” she said.

Some wild mushrooms are beautiful. Amanita muscaria is a large, usually red mushroom with white spots on it.

“It’s the pretty one, a mushroom you might associate with Alice in Wonderland,” Smolinkse said. “But it is a hallucinogenic, although not one people typically seek out. It can cause seizures, coma and delirium.”

And some wild mushrooms are plain. The peril comes from the fact that it can be difficult to tell edible mushrooms from toxic mushrooms.

The surest way to avoid poisoning by wild mushrooms, Smolinske said, is not to eat any of them.

Mushroom tips ⋄ Some of New Mexico’s wild mushrooms are edible, some are poisonous. People who think they have eaten poisonous mushrooms should call the New Mexico Poison & Drug Information Center hotline at 1-800-222-1222.

⋄ Best way to avoid mushroom poisoning is to avoid eating any wild mushrooms.

⋄ Teach children not to put mushrooms in their mouths.

⋄ Check lawns for mushrooms, especially after heavy rainfall, and discard them in a trash container inaccessible to children and pets.