Fly agaric

File:2006-10-25 Amanita muscaria crop.jpg

Showing three stages as the mushroom matures

Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a poisonous and psychoactive mushroom, one of many in the genus Amanita. Native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, this mushroom has been unintentionally introduced to many countries in the southern hemisphere, generally as a symbiont with pine plantations, and is now a true cosmopolitan species.

The quintessential toadstool, it is a large white-gilled, white-spotted, usually deep red mushroom, one of the most recognizable and widely encountered in popular culture. Although it is generally considered poisonous, deaths from its consumption are extremely rare, and it is eaten as a food in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America after parboiling. Amanita muscaria is noted for its hallucinogenic properties, with its main psychoactive constituent being the compound muscimol. It was used as an intoxicant and entheogen by the peoples of Siberia and has a religious significance in these cultures. There has been much speculation on traditional use of this mushroom as an intoxicant in places other than Siberia; however, such traditions are far less well documented. It has for instance been suggested that the fly agaric was an ingredient of Soma and that it played a role in the Eleusinian Mysteries as well as early Christianity.

Fly Agaric Media

• Fly Agaric mushroom 05.jpg

  Showing the partial veil under the cap dropping away to form a ring around the stipe

• Amanita muscaria section 1 WF orig.jpg

  Cross section of fruiting body, showing pigment under skin and free gills

• Amanita muscaria - Theodore Green - 15 1933 14.jpg

  Image of Amanita muscaria by Theodore Green (1933)

• Amanita muscaria var. formosa sensu Thiers.jpg

  Amanita muscaria var. formosa is now a synonym for Amanita muscaria var. guessowii.

• Amanita Muscaria in Eastern Europe, Lithuania.jpg

  Amanita Muscaria in Eastern Europe, Lithuania

• Amanita muscaria 26643.JPG

  Fly Amanita

• Flickr - Nicholas T - Forrest H. Dutlinger Natural Area (Revisited) (19).jpg

  Flickr - Nicholas T - Forrest H. Dutlinger Natural Area (Revisited) (19)

• Amanita muscaria (38010247562).jpg

  Amanita muscaria (38010247562)

• Reticulate Taildropper, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, CA, USA imported from iNaturalist photo 5533453.jpg

  Fed on by reticulate taildroppers, in California

• Amanita muscaria Marriott Falls 1.jpg

  In a Monterey pine plantation near Mount Field National Park, Tasmania

Related pages

• Panther cap

Other websites

• Webpages on Amanita species by Tulloss and Yang Zhuliang
• Amanita on erowid.org
• Aminita muscaria, Amanita pantherina and others (Group PIM G026) by IPCS INCHEM