An amateur mushroom forager spotted a rare and deadly mushroom growing in someone’s lawn as he walked around his Aurora neighborhood.
Lazarus Bell spotted a "destroying angel" mushroom last Friday. He turned it over to the Colorado Mycological Society, where mushroom expert Leah Gilman confirmed its toxicity.
The group says only eight of the fungi have ever been found in Colorado and all were in remote areas between Castle Rock and Colorado Springs.
The destroying angel mushroom is pure white and has a smooth stem and cap. It has a ring-like membrane near the top of the stem and is slightly bulbous on the bottom of the stem.
The mushroom’s poison affects the liver.
The mushroom is being kept at the Denver Botanical Gardens’ Herbarium of Fungi for further study.
