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Toxic☠️ To avoid

🍄 Fly Agaric

Amanita muscaria · Amanitaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🌲 Boreal🍁 North America
🧠 To remember it“Red with white spots, stay out of the pots” — the fairy tale mushroom is no edible treat.
Fly Agaric — Amanita muscaria

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

The most recognizable mushroom in the world, with its bright red cap dotted with white warts, popularized by fairy tales and pop culture. Despite its less deadly reputation than its death cap and destroying angel cousins, it remains toxic and dangerous, especially for children, causing a characteristic neurological syndrome. It is sometimes confused with the Caesar's mushroom, a highly prized edible.

  1. bright red to orange cap, covered with mealy white warts that can be washed away by rain
  2. membranous white ring on the stem
  3. bulbous stem base with several concentric ridges (never a clear sack-like volva)
  4. white gills and stem
Sizecap 8-20 cm, stem 8-20 cm
Floweringsummer-autumn
Habitatbirch and conifer forests, acid to neutral soils, often growing in groups

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Caesar's mushroom (highly sought-after edible) (Amanita caesarea)none for the Caesar's mushroom, confusion mainly possible with discolored specimens

To tell them apart: the Caesar's mushroom has a plain orange cap WITHOUT white warts, YELLOW gills and stem (never white), and emerges from a solid white egg (clear sack-like volva); the fly agaric always keeps a white stem and white gills

☠️ What kills

nomMuscimol and ibotenic acid (psychoactive isoxazole compounds)
dose letale estimeerarely fatal in healthy adults, but dangerous in children or in case of massive ingestion; the precise lethal dose remains poorly defined (approx)
delai30 min to 2 h
symptomesdizziness, loss of coordination, hallucinations, confusion, sometimes euphoria or agitation, severe cases involve seizures and coma, especially in young children
antidoteno specific antidote; symptomatic treatment and neurological monitoring
morts documenteesrare in adults, but severe cases and deaths are documented in young children who consumed multiple specimens

First steps : Call poison control immediately if ingested, especially for a child. Do not induce vomiting if consciousness is impaired. Keep a sample for identification, even if the appearance seems obvious.

Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.