Top 20 Most Common Toxic or Poisonous Mushrooms in Sammamish

Skullcap dapperling has a scaly, rough cap in variations of black, grey and white, giving rise to its common name. Predominantly found during the summer, skullcap dapperling is also frequently found in late spring. It can be mistaken for Leucocoprinus Cepistipes despite the different cap colors of the two; Leucocoprinus Cepistipes has a creamy buff-colored cap.

The shaggy parasol grows singly or in groups from spring to fall. It can be found in lawns and gardens as well as the forest. It has a tendency to cause allergic reactions. Take care with identification as it is difficult to distinguish from the more deadly Amanitas.

The white fibercap is found across Europe and North America. It's range extends impressively far north; it is one of the few mushroom species that does well in tundra. The species has a variant, Inocybe geophylla var. lilacina, that sports a beautiful, lilac-colored cap. As very few mushrooms bear purple hues, this variant is sought after by collectors. While pretty to look at, it is toxic.

Like most of the members of the Inocybe genus, the Inocybe whitei is a poisonous mushroom. Blushing fibrecap is easily distinguished from other Inocybe species by the tendency of the white fruiting body to "blush" - it stains pink, red, or orange.

The mower's mushroom, also referred to as the lawnmower's mushroom, is so named because it frequently crops up in lawns. The species is rather nondescript, and it is considered a member of the infamously hard-to-distinguish "Little Brown Mushroom" (LBM) family. While the mower's mushroom is not known to be toxic to humans or dogs, several of these close look-alikes are.

The yellowfoot dapperling (Lepiota magnispora) is a shaggy-capped species of Lepiota that can be found growing in wet forests across the western United States. While the species lacks a foot, it does usually have a blush of yellow or tan coloration at the base of its stalk - caps also have a tan or yellow hue, though they tend to darken to brown at their centers.

The hooded false morel (Gyromitra infula) does not look nearly as similar to true morels as some other false morels do. This mushroom has a highly irregular, often saddle-shaped cap that rarely has the honeycomb-like holes of a common morel. The species is widely distributed across the temperate northern hemisphere and tends to grow on rotting coniferous wood.

This tropical/subtropical mushroom is known to be toxic. If eaten it causes a very unpleasant stomachache with the risk of fatal complications. In temperate zones, flowerpot parasol is only found in hothouses and greenhouses, so the risk of accidental foraging is low, but it may occur with potted plants and indoor landscaping and pose a risk to curious children.

During the reproductive phase of its life cycle, Spinellus fusiger grows throughout the cap of the mushroom host, eventually breaking through to produce radiating reproductive stalks (sporangiophores) bearing minute, spherical, terminal spore-containing structures called sporangia. Ultimately, the spores in the sporangia are released after the breakdown of the outer sporangial wall, becoming passively dispersed to new locations via wind, water, and insects. The sporangia contain non-motile mitospores known as aplanospores. Like other Spinellus species, S. fusiger is homothallic, a condition where sexual zygospores can be produced union of branches from the same mycelium and so can be produced by the growth from a single spore.

This toxic mushroom may be found growing in landscaping near pine trees or in hardwood-conifer forests. It appears in temperate zones around the northern hemisphere during summer and fall. The gemmed amanita is poisonous and can cause muscle tremors and gastric upset if consumed.