Mushrooms: Why do they kill?

As daily updates about the 'mushroom murders' monopolised newsfeeds around the country, the What the Duck?! team started questioning the motives.  Not the human ones — the fungi ones.

Why would a mushroom need a toxin so powerful it takes just a few grams to kill a human?

And where's the warning?  Nature usually throws up alerts for poison, like bright colours or spots, but the death cap is pretty plain.

Why does a mushroom need such a deadly toxin anyway?

Featuring:

• Tom May, senior principal research scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria, and co-author of Planet Fungi 
• Grace Boxshall, PhD student at the University of Melbourne and visiting junior research fellow at the University of New South Wales.
• Lindsay Mollison, retired consultant physician in infectious diseases and gastroenterology
• Justin Beardsley, researcher at the University of Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute and physician at Westmead Hospital

Production:

• Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer
• Rebecca McLaren, Producer
• Hamish Camilleri, Sound Engineer

This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Taungurung people.

Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on the ABC Listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.