The death cap mushroom is a small, green-tinged mushroom that sprouts from the forest floor
© Getty / NASA;JPL-Caltech
The world’s deadliest mushroom has been invading California by cloning
itself. The poisonous death cap mushroom
(Amanita phalloides) is
an invasive fungus whose fatal amatoxin accounts for more than 90 per cent of deaths from mushrooms worldwide, but how it spread from its European origins to colonise every continent except Antarctica has long been a mystery. Now, researchers have found a reason why: the California version of the death cap can fertilise itself and produce perfect copies, sidestepping the need to mate before wafting its spores over an unconquered region. “The diverse reproductive strategies of invasive death caps are likely facilitating its rapid spread, revealing a profound similarity between plant, animal and fungal invasions,” researchers wrote.