Most commentators characterize this mushroom

Most commentators characterize this mushroom ominously as "toxic" or "poisonous". Somewhat more lightheartedly, Aurora relates the apocryphal tale of the elderly woman who accidentally consumed G. spectabilis. She laughed and cried uncontrollably. When the authorities came to carry her away to the hospital, she remarked, "If this is the way you die from mushroom poisoning, I'm all for it!"