Amanita muscaria var. flavivolvata

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by Michael Kuo

This is our continent's version of the classic European "toadstool," Amanita muscaria, which is probably the most depicted and recognized mushroom on earth--a fact in evidence even by my spelling checker's lack of objection to the species name; this almost never happens with fungi. To me, Amanita muscaria looks like those cut-out lawn decorations featuring an old farm woman in a polka-dotted dress bending over to tend flowers. Whatever it looks like to you, you'll probably agree that it is gorgeous. Our North American variety (or "subspecies," if you prefer) is distinguished by the fact that its universal veil and warts are yellow at first, though they quickly fade to white when exposed to sunlight--and by microscopic features.

Since the odds are high that some readers of this Web page have typed "Amanita muscaria" into a search engine and have arrived here without knowing the slightest thing about mushrooms and their identification, let me say this as plainly as I can: You are stupid if you eat this mushroom. Yes, it may get you high--and no, I am not some uptight jerk who cares whether you take (safe) psychoactive drugs. What I care about is that if you pick wild mushrooms and eat them, trying to get high, you could easily kill yourself by misidentifying your quarry. And even if you identify Amanita muscaria correctly, you may not only get high but also put yourself in the hospital, since it contains dangerous as well as psychoactive toxins.

I invite you to browse the online Reports of the Mushroom Poisoning Case Registry (MPCR) to see what can happen when you eat Amanita muscaria, and to read Roger Phillips's lengthy comments on the species, here. Astoundingly, the poisoning cases reported to the MPCR include not only thrill seekers, but a high number of folks who thought they were eating "puffballs." Un-expanded, still-pale buttons of Amanita muscaria (like the one in the last photo by Don McLeod, to the right) may look like puffballs on casual examination, but when sliced open reveal the mushroom-to-be in cross-section (see this photo of a different Amanita species sliced open for an example).

The defining features of the Amanita muscaria species group are:

• The presence of warts on the cap;
• The presence of a ring on the upper stem;
• Concentric zones of shaginess at the top of the swollen stem base.

The color of the cap ranges from bright red (in Amanita muscaria var. flavivolvata), to bright yellow (see Amanita muscaria var. formosa), to white (see Amanita muscaria var. alba, lower right). Compare Amanita muscaria with Amanita pantherina, which is brown and usually features a collar-like rim at the top of its bulb, rather than concentric zones--and with Amanita parcivolvata, which lacks a ring and has flakes on its stem base.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with conifers and hardwoods (primarily oaks); summer and fall (occasionally over winter in coastal California); widely distributed in North America.

Cap: 5-30 cm, nearly oval, becoming convex, then broadly convex to flat in age; smooth underneath the warts; color deep to bright red, but often fading with age to pale orange or pale yellow; with many cottony white warts; the margin usually lined.

Gills: Attached or free from the stem; white; close or crowded.

Stem: 5-20 cm long; 1-3 cm thick; more or less equal, or tapering to apex; with a swollen base; smooth to somewhat shaggy; white; with a persistent skirtlike ring; with concentric bands of universal veil material at the top of the bulb and/or on the lower stem.

Flesh: White throughout; unchanging when sliced.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 9-13 x 6.5-8.5 µ; smooth; broadly elliptical; inamyloid. Basidia not basally clamped.

REFERENCES: (Singer, 1958) Jenkins, 1977. (Smith, 1949; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Thiers, 1982; Weber & Smith, 1985; Arora, 1986; Jenkins, 1986; States, 1990; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992; Metzler & Metzler, 1992; Evenson, 1997; Lindgren, 1998; Barron, 1999; Tulloss, 2003.) Herb. Kuo 08170308.

Amanita muscaria var. formosa differs in that it has a bright yellow cap. See also var. alba, to the right.

Further Online Information:

Amanita muscaria subsp. flavivolvata at Tulloss's Amanita Site
Amanita muscaria at Tom Volk's Fungi
Amanita muscaria at MykoWeb
Amanita muscaria at Roger's Mushrooms
Amanita muscaria at Fungi of Poland

Differs from var. flavivolvata as follows:

Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2006, March). Amanita muscaria var flavivolvata. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/amanita_muscaria.html