Amanita bisporigera is a fungus that produces a deadly poisonous mushroom commonly known as the destroying angel, a name it shares with three other lethal white Amanita species. It is found on the ground in mixed coniferous and deciduous forests of Eastern North America, and rarely in western North America and Colombia. It has a smooth white cap that can reach up to 10 cm (3.9 in) across with crowded white gills, and a stalk up to 14 cm (5.5 in) long with a delicate white skirt-like ring near the top. The bulbous base is covered with a membranous sac- like volva. First described in 1906, A. bisporigera typically bears two spores on the basidia, as the species name suggests. The mushroom produces amatoxins, which inhibit a vital enzyme when eaten, RNA polymerase II. The first symptoms of poisoning appear 6 to 24 hours after consumption, followed by a period of apparent improvement, then by progressive liver and kidney failure, and death after four days or more. The DNA of A. bisporigera has been partially sequenced, and the genes responsible for the production of amatoxins have been determined.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_bisporigera

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1215:

King John of England put his seal to Magna Carta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta

1878:

Eadweard Muybridge took a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it gallops (animation pictured); the study became the basis of motion pictures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallie_Gardner_at_a_Gallop

1919:

After nearly 16 hours, the Vickers Vimy flown by John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown crash-landed in County Galway, Ireland, to complete the first non-stop transatlantic flight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_flight_of_Alcock_and_Brown

1954:

The Union of European Football Associations, the administrative and controlling body for European football, was founded in Basel, Switzerland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA

1996:

The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a truck bomb in the commercial centre of Manchester, England, injuring more than 200 people and causing widespread damage to buildings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Manchester_bombing

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

dung beetle: A type of beetle of the family Scarabaeidae noted for rolling dung into balls for use as food or as brooding chambers. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dung_beetle

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

We must get the American public to look past the glitter, beyond the showmanship, to the reality, the hard substance of things. And we'll do it not so much with speeches that sound good as with speeches that are good and sound; not so much with speeches that will bring people to their feet as with speeches that will bring people to their senses.   --Mario Cuomo https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mario_Cuomo