English: Amanita verna (Bulliard, 1780) - destroying angel mushroom. (public display, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)

Fungi are multicellular, non-photosynthesizing eucaryotes that are not capable of spontaneous movement. They feed on nutrients derived from organic matter in dead and decaying plants, such as wood, or in soil, or from living organisms. Those that feed on decaying wood or dead plant matter in soil are called saprotrophic fungi. Those that feed on living organisms are called parasitic fungi. Those that colonize a plant's roots and derive nutrients from (but not harming) the host plant are called mycorrhizal fungi.

Info. from signage at the Carnegie Museum: "Death is certain if you eat this, the most deadly of our poisonous fungi, which cuases ninety per cent of all mushroom poisoning deaths. The toxic, with four components, affects the liver, kidneys, heart and blood; it is not destroyed by cooking; and does not produce symptoms for about ten to fifteen hours after ingestion. There is no available antidote! The Destroying Angel may be distinguished by its white gills, the prominent ring on the long stem, and the cup at the base of the stem."

Classification: Fungi, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetes, Agaricales, Amanitaceae

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See a description of the destroying angel mushroom at:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_verna