Mushrooms are popping up everywhere in Sydney’s downpour. Here’s why you shouldn’t be tempted

Sydney man Jonathan Herrman in hospital after eating a wild mushroom that had grown on his front lawn. It made him violently ill. Photograph: Jonathan Herrman

Wet weather along the east coast of Australia has led to an early bumper mushroom season, prompting warnings about the risks of poisoning.

Toadstools have grown abundantly in urban parks and back yards in New South Wales in recent weeks, driven by the wettest summer in three decades in parts of the state.