Amanita muscaria - Fly Agaric

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

The Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, is a hallucinogen and therefore must be considered poisonous. These attractive fungi often appear in groups and are a common sight at the edges of all kinds of woodlands.

In the USA varieties of these lovely fungi can be found with both the red coloration that occurs in Europe as well as an orange-yellow form (Amanita muscaria var. formosa) with a yellow-tinged stem and ring.

The lovely group of Amanita muscaria var. formosa illustrated below were photographed by Nigel P Kent, to whom we are grateful for permission to show this picture:

Identification guide

	Cap 10 - 20cm diameter; red or occasionally orange; usually retaining irregular, white fragments of the universal veil; initially domed, but flattening at maturity. When damaged, the flesh just below the pellicle is initially white but soon turns yellow on exposure to air.
	Gills White, free, crowded. The gills turn pale yellow as the fruitbody matures.
	Stem 10 - 25cm long and 1.5 - 2cm in diameter; white and ragged with a grooved, hanging ring. The swollen base retains the white, sack-like remains of the volva, which eventually fragments into rings of scales around the base of mature specimens.
Spore print	White.
Odour/taste	Not distinctive.
Habitat	Mycorhizal with hardwood and softwood trees, notably birch and spruce.
Season	August to November.
Occurrence	Frequent; often recurring in the same place for several years.
Similar species	Amanita caesarea (Caesar's Mushroom) is rarely if ever found in northern Europe; its cap is brilliant orange with a striated margin, and the stipe is yellow. The caps of some samples of Amanita rubescens are deep orange, but their stems and their cap flesh always turn red when damaged. Russula marei (Beechwood Sickener) has a bright red cap but no ring or volva; it is very brittle.