One of the most deadly mushrooms in the world has found a way to reproduce alone, new research says, which leads scientists to believe a spread of death caps could occur.
New research indicates death caps, a highly poisonous mushroom, are reproducing in a way that may increase their presence in Canada., a preprint publication, death caps are reproducing alone. Plant reproduction usually involves the fusion of two sexes, but evidence shows these mushrooms are multiplying "by single individuals."
Death caps cause the most fatal mushroom poisonings in the world and if able to reproduce alone, researchers say there could be an increased presence of them in communities. Researchers determined the mushrooms can reproduce alone or with others since the nuclei, the centre of the plants’ atoms, are "competent for both unisexuality and bisexuality."
There are about 100 sightings of death caps in British Columbia on Vancouver Island and across the lower mainland,