![Amanita muscaria ( Fly Mushroom ) [ Original photo copyright © Horoshi Takahashi ]](images/other_life/PMPT00041.jpg)
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Phylum: Basidiomycota
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Class: Basidiomycetes
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Order: Agaricales
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Family: Amanitaceae
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Genus: Amanita
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Species: muscaria
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Common Names: Fly Agaric , Fly Mushroom , Fly Amanita , Satan's Mushroom , Sacred Mushroom
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Countries
Australia, New Zealand, United States of America
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Biology
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Habitat
Solitary or gregarious and sometimes in a circular group known as fairy rings. Usually found under hardwoods or conifers. Forms mycorrhizal association with birch and pine trees.
Fruiting from spring to autumn.
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Description
PILEUS (cap) 5-25 (40) cm diameter. Globose or hemispheric at first,, finally becoming flattened or plano-depressed. Blood-red, red-orange, often fading to straw-yellow, yellow-orange, may be darker at center, lighter towards margin; covered at first with numerous whitish, polygonal, soft warts arranged randomly or in nearly concentric rings, warts becoming faded or yellowish, may be washed off by rain, whole surface becoming smooth and faded. Margin smooth, often becoming striate. Cuticle viscid in humid weather, otherwise dry and glossy, easily detachable from the cap.
LAMELLAE (gills) free to adnexed or just touching the stipe. White, sometimes turning lemon yellow. Close, broad, narrower toward the stem, of various lengths.
STIPE (stem) 5-18 (30) cm in height, 0.3-3 cm thick, equal or tapering upward from bulbous base. White to cream-white, smooth or scaly below ring. Solid at first becoming pithy and hollow with age. Basal bulb ovoid, clavate, whitish to dirty white.
VOLVA (basal sac) poorly developed, forming 2-4 scaly, cottony, slightly raised rings around bulbous base.
ANNULUS membranous, forming a lwhite, arge, soft, ring, sometimes staining yellow frompigment washed off cap; superior to median, often collapsing with age.
FLESH slightly hard but friable, white, red under cap cuticle. Taste mild, nutty.
SPORE PRINT white.
MICROSCOPIC DETAILS
Spores 8-13 x 6-9 μm, subglobose to broadly ellipsoidal, colorless, inamyloid.
Basidia 40-50 x 10-13 μm, clavate, 4-spored, occasionally with basal clamp.
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First Aid
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Description: First aid for poisoning by plants or mushrooms where no agreed first aid method is currently available.
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Details
In the absence of research or clinical data about first aid for poisoning caused by this species, no first aid method can currently be recommended. Seek Medical Advice without delay.
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Clinical Effects & Treatment
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Dangerousness
Poisonous
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Toxin Classification
GROUP 5 Muscimol/Ibotenic acid, rapid, CNS
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Toxins
Psychoactive Isoxazole derivatives; Ibotenic acid and its decarboxylated derivative muscimol (GABA agonists) account for most symptoms (eg muscle spasm, confusion, intoxication, drowsiness, sleep). Also muscazone present in European specimens but role in poisoning unclear. Muscarine found in small quantities.
Accumulations of cadmium has been found in this species.
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Clinical Effects Overview
A variety of mushroom species spanning several genera, but typified by some Amanita species, notably A. muscaria and A. pantherina, contain toxins of the ibotenic acid muscimol group that cause excitatory, stimulant, sometimes hallucinogenic effects.
Note that Amanita pantherina may also contain Amatoxins and so ingestion may theoretically result in a mixed poisoning, with hepatotoxicty in addition to muscimol/ibotenic acid effects. Such a mixed picture appears rare, if it occurs at all.
Poisoning typically occurs shortly after ingestion (minutes to 3 hours) with an initial period of drowsiness (more marked in children), followed by a period of manic excitement, that may include visual hallucinations and bizare behaviour, this phase lasting several hours, up to 48 hours in severe cases, the final phase being, in most cases, drowsiness, usually resulting in sleep that can be deep, almost coma-like, with intense dreaming. Amnesia for the period of intoxication is common. Fatalities are rare, most likely in children or adults with pre-existing disease. A dose of 10 mushrooms has been suggested as potentially lethal in children, but this can only be considered an approximation, not least because of considerable variation in the size of mushrooms.
Symptoms are quite variable. Sensorial changes and associated symptoms can include agitation, elation, disorientation, depersonalisation, manic excitement, visual (including colour) misperceptions (rather than true hallucinations), confusion, overall giving the impression of inebriation. There can be ataxia, incoordination, dizziness, mydriasis, myoclonus, muscle fasciculation/tremors, hyporeflexia, coma, and in severe poisoning, especially in children, convulsions.
Other symptoms can include nausea, occasionally vomiting and/or diarrhoea (neither are prominent), abdominal pain, a generalised rash, profuse sweating.
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Primary Clinical Effect
The primary clinical effect is stimulation of the nervous system, with alternating somnolence and manic excitement, with visual misperceptions.
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Treatment Overview
Treatment for muscimol/ibotenic acid poisoning is principally supportive. In most cases, if the patient presents in the manic excitement phase, a period of observation in a controlled environment, to ensure no harm comes to either the patient or others, is sufficient, extended to observation through the following somnolent phase, until final awakening.
In cases with severe poisoning and more herculean effects, observation in an ICU may be required.
No antidote is available.
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![Amanita muscaria ( Fly Mushroom ) [ Original photo copyright © Horoshi Takahashi ]](images/other_life/PMP00041.jpg)
