Nature · Fungi

Fly agaric

Fruits August–November · cap to 20 cm

Amanita muscaria — Amanitaceae (a fungus, not a plant)

The fly agaric is the storybook toadstool: scarlet cap spotted with white, on a white ring-and-bulb stem, under birch and pine. It is a fungus, not a plant — fungi form their own kingdom, and are in fact more closely related to animals than to plants, having no chlorophyll and feeding by absorption. It is poisonous, a deliriant rather than a killer, and its active compounds are ibotenic acid and muscimol, not the muscarine its name suggests.

How to spot them

▸Scarlet to orange-red cap, flat or domed, scattered with white pyramidal warts that rain can wash off
▸White gills, free of the stem, and a white spore print
▸White stem with a drooping ring (annulus) and a swollen base with concentric scaly rings
▸Under birch first, also pine and spruce, because it is mycorrhizal with them
▸Late summer to late autumn, often in rings or troops on heath and in woodland

How to know it

A scarlet cap dotted with white warts over white free gills, a ringed stem and a scaly swollen base

Fly agaric — the most recognisable fungus in Britain.

The white spots on its cap are remnants of the universal veil, and heavy rain can wash them away entirely

Fly agaric — which is why a plain red cap can still be one.

Its English name comes from being crumbled into milk to stupefy flies

Fly agaric.

Its Latin epithet points to muscarine, but its real active compounds are ibotenic acid and muscimol

Amanita muscaria — the toxin it is named after is barely present.

Mycorrhizal with birch and pine, it followed those trees when they were planted in the southern hemisphere

Fly agaric — now naturalised in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Reindeer are drawn to it, and Siberian shamans used it as an intoxicant, fuelling much speculative folklore

Fly agaric.

Poisonous and hallucinogenic but very rarely fatal, unlike its lethal white and green cousins

Fly agaric — its genus contains both the destroying angel and the death cap.

Quick-fire facts

•A fungus, not a plant: fungi are a separate kingdom, with no chlorophyll, cell walls of chitin, and closer kinship to animals than to plants
•Toxic principles are ibotenic acid and muscimol, which act on the central nervous system; muscarine, for which it is named, occurs only in traces
•Poisoning causes stomach cramps, confusion, hallucinations and deep sleep; deaths are very rare
•The Wildlife Trusts note that red squirrels, slugs and the larvae of fungus gnats eat it without harm
•The white warts are fragments of the universal veil; rain can strip them off, so a washed cap is plain red
•Named for the practice of crumbling it into milk or sugar water to stupefy flies
•Ectomycorrhizal with birch, pine and spruce, exchanging nutrients with their roots; it has spread worldwide with planted conifers
•Its genus, Amanita, includes both deadly species (death cap, destroying angel) and prized edible ones — proof that no simple rule separates edible from poisonous fungi
•The classic toadstool of illustration, from Victorian fairy painting to Super Mario

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources

Woodland Trust — Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria)
The Wildlife Trusts — Fly agaric