A Mushroom’s Mumblings ft. Poison Fire Coral

Common Name: Poison Fire Coral

Scientific Name: Trichoderma cornu-damae, formerly Podostroma cornu-damae

Mushy Mumblings: A hastily written blog filled with the research of some article online, that is what this is (but did those articles do any research?).

The poison fire coral is one of the deadliest mushrooms in the world, and I’m quite sure that the mushroom loves the acclaim. In fact, a good deal of clickbaity new articles spawned on the wide wide web in 2019 due to its then-recent sighting in Australia. There were a small amount of false claims mixed in with eye-catching facts in those articles, which caught my interest. So here I am, writing a hopefully not too obvious ramble of completely true information, or so I can claim, about the poison fire coral! It’s totally not poisonous. I totally have no interest in poisonous mushrooms.

Physically, the poison fire coral is described as tough (which I cannot personally confirm) and it is orange-red, but it can age to an orange-brown color. As for a physical description, one of my friends, ever so enlightening stated that it looked like “fingers digging up from the earth” or “upside-down short carrots.” But on the internet there are multiple photos of it, so you too can come up with your own equally amusing descriptions. Additionally, this mushroom can look similar to some clavarioid species and cordyceps militaris, a mushroom used in traditional Chinese medicine, which are all edible, whereas the poison fire coral is not. That similarity is the reason that the Poison Fire Coralis consumed; surprisingly, people do not ingest this poisonous mushroom on purpose, and I also doubt the mushroom wished to be consumed either. So, in our next issue, we shall have a tell-all interview with—

—Hm, I see, it seems that the mushroom is unable to talk, and I am unwilling to fly to Asia or Australia to find some rare poison fire coral; let’s move on.

The poison fire coral contains trichothecene mycotoxins, which, to the average reader, is just a ‘fancy name for a type of toxin.’ But for the not so-average reader, the specific types of trichothecenes are multiple forms of satratoxin H (12’, 13’-diacetate, 12’-acetate, and 13’-acetate), verrucarin J, and roridin E. Roridin E has been researched as a potential anticancer agent, however there are multiple safety issues, such as the fact that it can only be harvested from poison fire coral mushrooms.

Now, onto the arguably more interesting part: the effects of consumption. Right off the bat, depending on the amount consumed and method you would use to (hopefully accidentally) consume the mushroom, the symptoms could take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks to kick in. Some symptoms include desquamation (peeling skin), alopecia (hair loss), stomach pains, and a shrinking in the cerebellum, which can lead to speech impediments, changes in perception, and problems with voluntary movement. Other symptoms include a decreased number of white blood cells and platelets, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and, eventually, multi-organ failure. There is no antidote for poison fire coral, so the most that doctors can do is supportive therapy, which only addresses the symptoms. However, there isn’t a 100 percent fatality rate, meaning there is hope for survival.

Additionally, there are some old articles that state the poison fire coral can cause skin irritation or death if touched. This is based on the fact that its toxins (the trichothecene mycotoxins, if you remember), can be absorbed via touch. However, that is the case for the toxins, not the actual mushroom itself. Some blogs stated for a fact that touching the poison fire coral does not cause skin irritation, as the writers were mushroom hunters and had found and touched the mushroom. Although, personally, I still wouldn't recommend being too rash if you find a poison fire coral out in the wild: don’t touch it and then lick your hands or touch your eyes right after. However, if you’re in the mood to tempt fate, don’t let my words guide you away from some foolhardy decisions. Free choice and all.

And speaking of free choice, here is the paragraph where I choose to end this ramble. I purposely didn’t include any mention of the fatalities it caused, but if you are interested: there were some in Japan and Korea in 1999 and 2000. Either way, I will now awkwardly shuffle out with the hope of having more poisonous mushroom facts or just facts about a non-poisonous mushroom if you all so desire. However, to any potential emailer, I may be unable to respond, as I will be prodding at the idea of taking a plane flight to Japan and finding a poison fire coral myself.