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It is difficult to find a more recognizable species of inedible mushroom than Amanita muscaria, i.e. the red toadstool. Due to his characteristic appearance, every child in this part of the world knows him. Few people, however, know why this mushroom is considered inedible, and what applications it may have.
Red fly agaric – general description and occurrence
An adult red fly agaric is about 20 cm tall with a handle and the same diameter as a hat. In young specimens, the hat has the shape of a ball, then gradually flattens down to a recessed form somewhat resembling a dish. The gills are pale yellow, falling into white. They are densely distributed and free, ie not attached to the shaft.
Juveniles have hats covered with a white cover. As the fungus grows, it fades away, leaving characteristic white dots on the red hat. The mushroom has a white stem and also a white flesh that gives off a faint odor.
The red fly agaric is very common all over the world, practically throughout the temperate climate zone, although it is also found in warmer regions of the world such as the Mediterranean basin and Central America. It is a typical species for forests in Central Europe, also very common in Poland. It grows between August and November, most often in coniferous forests, but also in deciduous forests.
Red fly agaric – poisoning
The red fly agaric is listed as a poisonous species in all mushroom atlases. It contains toxic substances such as muscarine, ibotenic acid and muscimol. The main symptoms of poisoning are shortness of breath, vomiting and diarrhea, as well as hallucinations. It is suspected that ibotenic acid is the most responsible for them. Hallucinations involve severe disturbances in the sense of time and space that cause a feeling of general disorientation. These effects may subside after just two hours, followed by unstoppable drowsiness. It does not happen that any changes in the state of consciousness last longer than 24 hours. Young individuals usually contain more substances than older ones, but the concentrations fluctuate so much that it is extremely difficult to estimate what doses of poisons may be in individual mushrooms.
Toadstool poisoning is extremely rare due to the characteristic and well-known appearance of the mushroom. They are most common among young children and young adults experimenting with psychoactive substances and consciously consuming these mushrooms. Fatal poisoning is very rare, and the red toadstool does not cause long-term damage to internal organs. The danger is more related to the accidents that may occur when a poisoned person is intoxicated. Most of the reports of death from eating a red toadstool are actually for the fly agaric, which differs slightly in appearance (brown cap instead of red) but has a much higher concentration of toxic substances.
Interesting facts about the red toadstool
The name “fly agaric” comes from the fact that this mushroom was once used as a remedy for flies. The flies fell after contact with the toadstool. Interestingly, the fungus does not kill them, but paralyzes them for up to several days.
The psychoactive effects of the toadstool have been known since antiquity. It is known that shamans in Siberia used this mushroom to enter a mystical trance, during which they contacted the souls of the dead and foretold the future. Since the fly agaric causes severe digestive ailments, the shamans, instead of eating fresh mushrooms, drank the urine of those who had taken them before. Most of the toxins contained in the fly agaric are not metabolized, but the body excretes them in this way.
Although there are many recipes on the Internet about how to prepare a toadstool so that you can intoxicate it, this type of experiment should be strongly discouraged. The dose of psychoactive substances is practically unpredictable, so in an extreme case it can become severely poisoned or intoxicated so badly that the person under the influence of the toadstool will completely lose touch with reality.
However, if we are curious about the effects of this mushroom, we can always refer to the literature. The American writer Thomas Pynchon in his famous novel “Gravity’s Rainbow” included a suggestive description of a “high” after smoking a dried red toadstool added to a cigarette.