Mushrooms · Plate I

Fly agaric

Amanita muscaria

A red cap, domed then flat, dotted with white warts that are remnants of the veil that wrapped the young mushroom; rain can wash them away. Underneath it has white gills, and its white stem carries a skirt-like hanging ring and rises from a bulb ringed with warts.

It lives joined to the roots of birches and pines: the fungus, a web of fine threads underground, shares water and nutrients with the tree in exchange for sugars. The mushroom is only its fruit, and it appears mostly in autumn.

Its name comes from the Latin musca, “fly”, and recalls a very old European custom involving flies, already recorded in the 13th century. With its red cap and white spots, it is the mushroom of fairy tales.

Just for the pleasure of looking: identifying mushrooms is a job for experts.

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