Fly Agaric

Amanita muscaria

Deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests, parks. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies large. Cap grows up to 25 cm across, bright red, orange-red, with irregularly shaped patches or warts of the white veil. Gills broad, crowded, white, yellowish when old. Stem 8-22x2-3 cm, white, with a ring, the base bulbously thickened, fused with the volva, looking as if ragged. Flesh white, orange under the cuticle, soft, thick, without any particular smell or taste. Characteristic features: stem without a volva, only with flaky remnants, spores non-amyloid. Grows singly, mostly in larger or smaller groups. Poisonous, very common. An adornment of the forest. Poisonous substances identified: muscarine, muscaridine, muscimol, bufotenine, ibotenic acid (some of them have hallucinogenic properties).