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The order Amanitales contains just one family, the Amanitaceae, comprising
two genera, Amanita and Limacella. The Amanita genus is well know
for such prized edibles as Caesar's mushroom (Amanita caesarea), as well as
for several deadly poisonous species (Amanita
phalloides and Amanita pantherina, for example).
This group also contains Amanita muscaria,
commonly known as the Fly Agaric, one of the most beautiful of all the gilled
fungi.
All fungi in this group have white or cream, free or almost free gills. They
leave a white spore print.
Some but not all Amanita fungi have fragments of the universal veil attached to
the cap, and at maturity many retain a distinct volva - the remains of the
universal veil - rather like either a cup or an open bag around the base of the stipe.
This small family (with only some 60 species in Europe, and less than half
that number in the UK) includes two of the most poisonous of all fungi:
| Amanita phalloides (Death Cap) |
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| Amanita virosa (Destroying Angel) |
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Several other Amanita fungi are also poisonous and so, as
with other white-gilled species, these kinds of fungi should be collected only
with extreme caution. |
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