How to identify these poisonous mushrooms?

by Anitha

1. Warts or scales on the cap. Note the off coloured "patches" on the top of the picture to the right. These are the remnants of the universal veil that surrounds the mushroom when it is young. Sometimes these patches look more like rows of raised dots, as seen on the pictures further down.

2. A parasol or umbrella shaped cap. Each of these pictures is a good example of how an amanita cap is shaped, convex like a wide, upside down letter U. Or, for my fellow math enthusiasts, like an inverted parabola!

3. The presence of a

bulbous cup or sac around the base. This rounded cup is called the "volva" and is another remnant of the universal veil. It is often under the ground so you may have to gently dig up the mushroom to see it. The Amanita muscaria (commonly known as a "toadstool") to the left is a great example of this bulbous base.

4. A white spore print. When an amanita cap is placed face down on a dark coloured sheet of paper, it will often leave a spore print that is white.

5. The presence of a ring around the stem. This ring, called the "

annulus", is where the partial veil was attached to the stem before it tore apart as the mushroom grew. Check out the white mushroom to the right, you can see this ring quite clearly.

6. Gills that are thin and white. The underside of this example shows the white gills of anAmanita. Just another thing to look for when trying to identify poisonous mushrooms.