Amanita muscaria - Mushroom Hunting and Identification

Home | Community | Message Board

You are not signed in.
New Account

Forum Index Search Posts Trusted Vendors Highlights Galleries FAQ User List Chat Store Random Growery

This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.

Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Hunting and Identification

Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop:

North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies

Buy Bali Kratom Powder

Certified Organic All-In-One Grow Bags by Magic Bag

Buy Kratom Extract

Red Vein Kratom

Substrate Bags

Isolated Cubensis Liquid Culture For Sale

Olympus Myco Bulk Substrate

Jump to first unread post

Pages: 1 | 2 | Next > [ show all ]

Some of these posts are very old and might contain outdated information. You may wish to search for newer posts instead.

ToxicMan
Bite me, it's fun!

Registered: 06/28/02
Posts: 6,731
Loc: Aurora, Colorado
Last seen: 1 hour, 3 minutes

Amanita muscaria

#1914164 - 09/13/03 10:19 PM (21 years, 27 days ago)

Amanita muscaria is perhaps the best known mushroom, at least in terms of art. It appears in artwork dating back about as far back as there is art to be dated.

Rather than present a formal mycological description, here we will cover a few macroscopic features that may be noted in the field to confirm that a mushroom is indeed Amanita muscaria.

Probably the most important character is the multiple rings of tissue at the top of the volva. There are occasional specimens which lack these, but if there are not others in the same group of mushrooms which have them, then you should consider that your mushrooms may not be A. muscaria.

There is normally a skirtlike ring on the stem, but the ring is very fragile, and it is not unusual for specimens to be missing the ring. Buttons should show a partial veil obscuring the gills.

Cap color is not a very good character for identification. Cap color in this species ranges from an extremely deep red through oranges, tans, and yellows to a very near white color. The specimens in the photographs above are all of Amanita muscaria variety flavivolvata (recognized by the conspicuously yellow universal veil). This variety has a strikingly red cap when young. Sunlight fairly rapidly fades the caps, and the photos above shows some specimens with caps that have faded to an orangish-tan coloration.

Normally, the friable univeral veil splits into warts which are left on the cap - a conspicuous feature widely represented in art. However, the warts can easily be washed off, and specimens with no warts at all can be found.

If cut in half, the flesh inside is solid, firm (if fresh), and white. The red color from the cap extends a couple millimeters down into the cap flesh below the surface of the cap.

The primary effects from eating A. muscaria are due to ibotenic acid and muscimol. Muscimol has between 5 and 10 times the potency of ibotenic acid by weight. In experiments, about 6 milligrams of muscimol cause the central nervous system effects. This quantity is typical of a single cap of A. muscaria. The fatal dose is about 15 caps, but the level of toxins varies considerably from specimen to specimen. The toxins exist in all parts of the mushroom.

During drying, some of the ibotenic acid undergoes spontaneous decarboxylation into muscimol. Historically, the native peoples who have used A. muscaria have dried their mushrooms for later use. With storage, the muscimol and ibotenic acid are gradually destroyed. After even one year, quantitative studies of alkaloid content are unreliable. After seven years, only traces remain.

Onset of symptoms is almost always between 30 and 120 minutes after ingestion. There have been unusual cases where onset was delayed up to 6 hours.

The most common symptoms are nausea and vomiting, although not everyone experiences them. The first symptom experienced is usually loss of coordination. The person often finds themselves unable to walk or walks as if drunk. Another striking symptom is that the activity level will rise and fall - for a time the person seems asleep and may be difficult to arouse, then they become almost uncontrollably active. Muscle twitching frequently develops. Some persons experience hallucinations. The most commonly described hallucination is macropsia - the perception that an object is much larger than it actually is. Changes in color perception, subjective changes in one's physical abilites, and amnesia may occur. Generalized siezures rarely occur, but are most frequent in children.

Typically the symptoms peak in 2 to 5 hours, and the duration of the symptoms is 8 to 24 hours. With very few exceptions, all symptoms disappear within 48 hours. Many persons report a hangover type headache.

Overall, there is usually a greater risk of harm from medical overtreatment than there is from the mushrooms themselves.

In the state of Colorado, Amanita muscaria is the most common cause of mushroom poisoning where a species can be identified, followed by Amanita pantherina, then Chlorophyllum molybdites. Anyone who is considering eating them should do so in small quantities, to minimize the potential unpleasant effects, until they know the actual potency of their specimens and what the effects will be.

--------------------
Happy mushrooming!

Extras:

Similar Threads	Poster	Views	Replies	Last post
i think its a amanita muscaria but help me verify-pics...	PunkAlex	1,775	9	09/15/04 07:30 PM by PunkAlex
id reguest. amanita muscaria? ( 1 2 all )	dxharms	2,231	20	05/24/09 08:02 PM by dxharms
Are these Amanita Muscaria?	Amerikan Metz	2,704	15	10/21/07 01:00 PM by Amerikan Metz
Self Proclaimed muscaria king of Georgia...lol check THESE out ( 1 2 3 4 all )	dickenz07	8,444	61	03/01/09 02:32 PM by trigger
Amanita muscaria????????	TommyG	3,689	15	06/17/05 12:55 AM by ivi
Amanita Muscaria?	yay4shrooms	1,229	3	08/09/06 06:56 AM by xmush
Amanita Muscaria ( 1 2 all )	Odd_Snail	7,769	27	10/10/01 10:54 PM by Anonymous
Amanita muscaria, my first hunt	Cartoonenima	1,467	16	07/01/09 07:02 AM by Cartoonenima