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Fly Agaric
Scientific Name: Amanita muscaria
Family Name: Amanitacceae
Edibility: Poisonous
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Description: Blood-red cap with pyramidal, white patches; stalk has ring and bulbous base with rows of cottony patches. Cap: 2 - 10 inches (5 - 25 cm) wide; convex to flat or somewhat sunken; margin somewhat radially lined, sometimes with hanging remnants of veil; tacky when wet, smooth; blood-red to reddish-orange, with random or concentrically arranged cottony patches. Gills: free or slightly attached, crowded, broad, whitish. Stalk: 2 - 7 inches (5 - 18 cm) long 1/8 - 1 1/4 inches (0.3 - 3 cm) thick, sometimes enlarging toward rounded basal bulb; fibrous to cottony or scaly, white to cream. Veils: universal veil white; leaving conical to flat patches on cap that are often in concentric rings, and concentric bands on lower stalk, sometimes as rim at tip of bulb. Partial veil membranous, white; leaving pendant, fragile, often collapsing ring on upper stalk. Spores: 9.4 - 13 x 6.3 - 8.7 microns; broadly elliptical, smooth, colorless, nonamyloid. Spore print white. Season: July - October; winter in California. Habitat: On the ground, under pine, spruce, and birch; also live oak and madrone in California, spruce at higher elevations. Range: Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coast; rare in East, but reported in Maine, Connecticut, and New York. Look-Alikes: The poisonous Amanita muscaria var. flavivolvata has yellow universal veil. Comments: This mushroom is called the Fly Agaric because it has been used, mixed in milk, to stupefy houseflies. The Fly Agarics of North America cause delirium, raving, and profuse sweating. Unlike its Siberian relative, this induces no visions. [Lincoff, Gary H., The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1981]
Caps: 5 - 26 cm wide; convex to flat; moist and slightly sticky; yellow-orange or red, with white patches. Flesh firm, white. Gills: Free of the stalk or nearly so, closely spaced; white. Stalk: 5 - 12 cm long, 1 - 3 cm thick, enlarging somewhat at the base; white; with 2 or 3 concentric bands of cottony tissue near the base and a fragile, membranous ring near the apex. Spore Print: White. Fruitings: Solitary or in groups on the ground in conifer and mixed forests; summer, fall (and early winter in coastal California). Range: Throughout North America. Comments: Specimens with red caps are most common in the West; those with yellow-orange caps are most common in the East. There is also an all-white variety. This mushroom causes delirium and copious sweating. Similar Species: Yellow Patches (Amanita flavoconia; edibility unknown) is smaller and has yellow patches on the cap. [Bessette, Alan and Sundberg, Walter J., Macmillan Field Guides; Mushrooms; A quick reference guide to mushrooms of North America, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1987]