Hymenogastraceae: Galerina, Liberty Cap and Poisonpies

What the Members Share

Every member here drops a brown spore print. The print runs rusty in Deadly Galerina, the poisonpies and big laughing gym, and purple-brown in Liberty Cap. Autumn skullcap is another common name for deadly galerina, since both names refer to Galerina marginata.

The members carry very different dangers. The galerina holds amatoxins, and liberty cap holds psilocybin. The two poisonpies bring stomach poisoning, and big laughing gym brings variable effects. Cap color and shape overlap heavily across these four genera. Spore color, what they grow on, gill attachment and ring structure separate them. Often you also need a microscope and a regional key.

Bitter Poisonpie is a large clay-brown Hebeloma with a coarse, scaly, ringless stem and a radish smell. Its relatives share clay caps, brown spores and radish-like odors, so the smell alone does not pin it down.

Poison Pie is a paler Hebeloma with a sticky cap. Its crowded gills turn clay brown and may weep droplets that dry into brown spots. It causes stomach and gut illness. Those features point to the genus, yet they do not reliably confirm the species.

The Deadly Galerina

Galerina marginata is a small mushroom with rusty spores. It grows on decaying logs, stumps and wood chips, and it carries the same amatoxins as the death cap. Its symptoms usually hold off six to twenty-four hours. Cooking, drying, freezing or soaking does not make it safe.

On wood, the spore print is your first check against honey mushrooms. Deadly galerina drops rusty brown where honey mushrooms drop white. The print only rejects a cluster, though, and never clears it by itself.

Psychoactive Members and the Collection Mistake

People seek liberty cap and Big Laughing Gym for their effects, and they do not collect them as food. Liberty cap contains psilocybin and psilocin, which US federal regulations list in Schedule I. Big laughing gym is a large, bitter, orange-rust mushroom that grows in clusters on wood. Its chemistry and reported effects vary across its species group.

In North America several related Gymnopilus species go by its name. Large orange clusters can also be jack-o'-lanterns, honey mushrooms or pholiotas. So color and cluster shape will not tell you which of these you have found.

For collectors, the galerina is the family's worst risk. It shares wood-chip and log habitat with several small brown mushrooms that people collect. Matching on one feature is not enough for food or recreational use. You cannot identify a small brown mushroom such as liberty cap, or judge it safe, from one cap feature, bruising reaction, photograph or habitat clue.