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Amanita muscaria

Amanita muscaria
2006-10-25 Amanita muscaria crop.jpg
Showing three stages as the mushroom expands
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Agaricales
Family: Amanitaceae
Genus: Amanita
Species: A. muscaria
Binomial name
Amanita muscaria
(L.) Lam. (1783)
Amanita muscaria
Mycological characteristics
gills on hymenium

cap is flat

or convex
hymenium is free
stipe has a ring and volva
spore print is white
ecology is mycorrhizal

edibility: poisonous

or psychoactive

cap is flat

edibility: poisonous

Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a mushroom and psychoactive basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita. Native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, Amanita muscaria has been unintentionally introduced to many countries in the Southern Hemisphere, generally as a symbiont with pine and birch plantations, and is now a true cosmopolitan species. It associates with various deciduous and coniferous trees.

This iconic toadstool is a large white-gilled, white-spotted, usually red mushroom, and is one of the most recognisable and widely encountered in popular culture. Several subspecies with differing cap colour have been recognised, including the brown regalis (often considered a separate species), the yellow-orange flavivolvata, guessowii, formosa, and the pinkish persicina. Genetic studies published in 2006 and 2008 show several sharply delineated clades that may represent separate species.


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Wikipedia

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