An expert has warned against eating poisonous fungi after a hiker spotted what he thought was the world’s deadliest fungi, called poison fire coral, but which turned out to be a less harmful species, Clavulinopsis miyabeana.
A hiker surnamed Lee (李) on Saturday said that he took a photograph of a cluster of red fungi he saw on his way to Gaoyaoshan (高腰山) in New Taipei City’s Wulai District (烏來) last month.
After discussing the picture with a retired science teacher, they concluded that it looked like poison fire coral, also known as Podostroma cornu-damae, which is native to Japan, but has been found as far away as Australia.
Photo courtesy of hiker surnamed Lee
Lee became concerned that people might pick the bright red fungus for consumption.
Fungus expert Lin Tzu-chao (林子超), who published a paper on poison fire coral as a new species in Taiwan, said that the fungus in the picture Lee took is likely Clavulinopsis miyabeana, based on its appearance.
Poison fire coral has rodlike, solid, fleshy and reddish orange stromata that point upward and are white inside, Lin said, adding that they are 6cm to 10cm in height and 0.7cm to 1cm in diameter.
Clavulinopsis miyabeana is different in that it is hollow and rodlike, and 3cm to 4cm tall, he said.
Poison fire coral, a type of saprophytic fungus, grows in scattered patterns on the ground beneath broad-leaved trees, and its spores are dispersed by wind, Lin said.
It has been found in China, South Korea, and on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), but not on Taiwan proper, he said.
While touching poison fire coral is not harmful, it must not be eaten, he said.
There was a case in South Korea of two people drinking water cooked with wild lingzhi mushroom they gathered without knowing that it contained a piece of poison fire coral, Lin said.
One died and the other suffered from desquamation of skin on the palms and soles, severe septicemia and organ failure, he said.
Consuming any type of poisonous fungus can cause vomiting, diarrhea and hallucinations, while poison fire coral additionally causes severe liver damage, he said.
There is no antidote for the poison, so those who have consumed it can only be treated with supportive therapy, he added.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS