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The white fly agaric is a member of the Amanitovye family. In the literature, it is also found under other names: Amanita verna, white amanita, spring amanita, spring toadstool.
Are there white fly agaric
This species, whose representatives are popularly called white fly agaric because of the color of the fruit body, is widely represented in deciduous plantations of Eurasia. Some scientists consider the toadstool to be a variety of the pale toadstool based on the similar structure and chemical composition of the fibers. The spring grebe is ubiquitous in comparison to the present one. As you can see from the photo, the spring fly agaric is similar to the toadstool in appearance. Both dangerous fungi belong to the same family and genus. It is believed that the name of the fly agaric poisonous mushroom owes its destructive effect on flies and other insects. Among fly agarics, many species of different colors are similar only in shape.
What does a white fly agaric look like?
Going into the forest, you should study well the various descriptions and photos of a frequently encountered dangerous species.
Description of the hat
The white fly agaric, as in the photo, has a medium-sized hat 3-11 cm wide. In the first days of growth, it is spherical or rounded-conical in shape, the edges are concave inward. Then it gradually straightens and becomes flat. The top may be slightly convex, slightly depressed in the center or with a tubercle, the edges are slightly ribbed. They say that the white fly agaric hat looks like an inverted saucer. The skin is velvety in appearance, smooth. From a distance, without a fracture of the fruiting body, it does not have any strongly pronounced odor.
The color of young and old mushrooms is the same: white or with a light cream shade.
The pulp is white, dense, after breaking, which, for safety reasons, can only be carried out with whole rubber gloves, gives off an unpleasant odor.
The bottom of the cap is made up of spore-bearing plates - white or slightly pink in color at any age, wide, densely located. The spore powder is white. In young fly agarics, the lamellar layer is covered with a white blanket, which breaks during growth and becomes a ring on the leg - with torn edges, the same white color as the leg and cap.
Leg description
A white fly agaric stands on a leg 4-12 cm high, with a diameter of 0.6 to 2.8 cm. There may be a slight thickening at the junction of the cap with the leg. The same enlargement, but much larger in volume, is located at the bottom of the leg, covered with a volva, a kind of cupped or fragmentary, in the form of scales, formation that is located around the thickened tuber. In young mushrooms, a volva can take up one third of the entire height of the leg and rises to 3-4 cm.
The cylindrical surface of the stem is rough, fibrous, and may be covered with small scales from below.Close up on the leg, a slight sticky coating is noticeable, in which a lot of contact poison is concentrated. If the substance gets on the skin, it is necessary to urgently wash the area under running water. In the same way, it infects with poison other fungi that are in the basket.
Where and how it grows
Amanita muscaria is common in Europe and Asia. A poisonous mushroom is found everywhere. It is often found in moist areas of deciduous forests, plantings where the soils are rich in lime. It is also found in mixed forests, where conifers also grow. The appearance of the first white fly agaric begins in June and continues until the autumn frosts.
Edible white fly agaric or not
Amanita muscaria white smelly - a poisonous, inedible mushroom. The action of its toxins occurs:
- through the use of pulp, which in most cases is fatal;
- even touching the sticky bloom that covers the fruiting body can cause significant harm to health;
- getting into the basket together with other species, they poison almost all fruiting bodies, and after consumption, the deadly poison enters the human body, causing, at best, moderate poisoning.
Poisoning symptoms, first aid
Having accidentally consumed even a small young white fly agaric containing a strong toxin muscarine, after at least 30 minutes, 2-6 hours, or sometimes after two days, the victims feel problems with the gastrointestinal tract:
- incessant vomiting;
- intestinal colic;
- bloody diarrhea;
- intense saliva and sweat production.
To the pronounced symptoms of poisoning are added:
- feeling of not quenching thirst;
- painful muscle spasms;
- the pulse is poorly felt;
- pressure drops sharply;
- pupils narrow and vision is impaired;
- sometimes loss of consciousness occurs;
- jaundice develops outwardly;
- when palpating, an increase in the liver is noticeable.
The first steps that can be taken before the arrival of doctors are gastric lavage and the use of activated carbon, enterosorbent.
Recovery can occur if a person is able to get to the hospital before 36 hours have elapsed since eating the mushrooms. If treatment occurs later, death is possible, most often within 10 days. The poison of the white fly agaric is insidious in that pain is not always present for the first 48 hours, while the action of toxins inside the body leads to irreversible phenomena.
Doubles and their differences
Amanita muscaria white spring dangerous because next to it can grow very similar to him doubles, which people often collect:
- conditionally edible white float;
- volvariella is beautiful or mucous head;
- white umbrella;
- young mushrooms.
Going on a quiet hunt for mushrooms that look like a dangerous white fly agaric, they study the photo and description of the poisonous double.
The main difference between the spring toadstool and the white float is in the absence of a ring on the leg of the conditionally edible mushroom. And also the unpleasant smell that the pulp of a poisonous mushroom emits, in contrast to the weak mushroom at the float. But it is difficult for an inexperienced mushroom picker to recognize them, since the white float also belongs to the genus Fly agaric. It is often found under birch trees, and the leg is also immersed in a volva, but higher - it can be up to 20 cm. Young caps are ovoid, elongated.
Another conditionally edible fungus, the mucous-headed volvariella, or the beautiful one, which is part of the Pluteaceae family, also does not have a ring on the leg, but there is a saccular volva. The species is distinguished by pinkish plates, a larger fruiting body and the absence of a smell from the pulp.
How to tell a white fly agaric from an umbrella
As a representative of the Champignon family, the white edible umbrella holds on a high, thin leg, surrounded by a ring, a fleshy large cap with a pleasant smell. The species does not have a Volvo. It grows under trees, as well as in meadows and steppes.
Amanita muscaria is distinguished from a white umbrella by the following parameters:
- near the thickening at the base of the leg, there is a cup-shaped volva;
- the leg is soft, in contrast to the stiff-fibrous in the umbrellas;
- unpleasant odor on the break of the pulp.
What is different from champignon
At the beginning of the growth of spring toadstools, they can be easily taken by collecting young mushrooms. In the field species, as in the large-spore species, as well as in the meadow species, at a young age, light hemispherical caps and plates are almost the same as in the spring fly agarics. When the bedspread breaks, a ring remains on the stem of the champignon. But in adult mushrooms, the plates are pinkish, later turn brown, and this is different from the white fly agarics.
Edible champignons are distinguished from white amanita:
- in the absence of tuberous thickening at the base of the leg;
- pleasant mushroom smell.
Another deadly poisonous counterpart of the spring fly agaric is the pale toadstool, which is distinguished by the darker color of the whitish cap. In addition, a sweetish aroma is perceptible from a pale toadstool.
Conclusion
Amanita muscaria is widespread, has several very similar conditionally edible or generally recognized edible counterparts with high nutritional properties, like champignons. The poison of the species is highly toxic, leaving almost no chance for survival after eating even a small piece of pulp. Before picking mushrooms, they carefully study the features of dangerous twins in order to eliminate the risk.
