Poisonous ‘Jack-O-Lantern’ Mushrooms Bloom In Palos Forest Preserves

PALOS, IL — If you’re walking through the forest preserves at night and happen to spot some glow-in-the-dark mushrooms it’s not a paranormal encounter. They’re jack-o-lantern mushrooms (omphalotus olearius) and you don’t want to eat them.

Palos Park police are alerting nature lovers about the poisonous fungi that are making their first appearance for fall in the Palos forest preserve. While eating the jack-o-lantern shrooms won’t kill you, you definitely don’t want your dog chowing down on one.

Officers found a large cluster of them Sept. 27 growing near the southwest corner of Lagrange and McCarthy roads.

“When you patrol heavily wooded pastoral areas like Palos Park, this time of year officers are on the lookout for the jack-o-lantern mushrooms,” said Chief Joe Miller, of the Palos Park Police Department. “This plant has medium severity poison characteristics. usually not enough to kill a healthy adult, but will make you very sick.”

The jack-o-lantern mushrooms are distinguished by their pretty yellowish orange or orange color, and grow in clusters according to GroCycle. They are most often found during the late summer and fall in the midwestern and eastern United States.

Their stalks grow to nearly 10 inches. You’ll find the shrooms growing in large clusters where hardwood trees grow, particularly near oak trees. The gills of the jack-o-lantern mushroom also glow at night, due to their bioluminescent properties.

The jack-o-lantern mushrooms are often confused with the delicious and edible chanterelle mushrooms, which proliferate throughout Forest Preserves of Cook County. If you accidentally consume the jack-o-lantern shroom, you’ll start feeling sick an hour or two later, including vomiting, chills, sweating and irregular breathing.

“When foraging for mushrooms, go with an expert,” Miller said. “When in doubt, take a picture and walk away.”