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The white fly agaric is a member of the Amanitaceae family. It is also found in the literature under other names: Amanita verna, white fly agaric, spring fly agaric, spring toadstool. 
Are there white fly agarics
This species, whose representatives are popularly called white fly agaric because of the color of the fruiting body, is widely represented in deciduous plantations of Eurasia. The spring grebe is considered by some scientists to be a species of pale grebe based on the similar structure and fiber chemistry. Spring toadstool is ubiquitous in comparison with the present. 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 one genus. It is believed that the poisonous mushroom owes its name to the fly agaric for 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 common dangerous species.
Cap Description
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 round-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 hat of the white fly agaric looks like an inverted saucer. The skin is velvety smooth in appearance. From a distance, without breaking the fruiting body, it does not have any strongly pronounced smell.
The color of young and old mushrooms is the same: white or with a light cream tint.
The flesh is white, dense, after breaking, which for safety reasons can only be done with intact rubber gloves, it emits 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 spaced. Spore powder is white. In young fly agarics, the lamellar layer is covered with a white veil, which breaks during growth and becomes a ring on the stem – with torn edges, the same white color as the stem and cap.
Description of the leg
The white fly agaric stands on a stalk 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 stalk. The same enlargement, but much larger in volume, is located at the bottom of the stem, covered with Volvo, a kind of cup-shaped or fragmentary, in the form of scales, formation that is located around the thickened tuber. In young mushrooms, Volvo can occupy one third of the entire height of the stem and rises to 3-4 cm.
The cylindrical surface of the stem is rough, fibrous, from below it can be covered with small scales. Near the leg, a slight sticky coating is noticeable, in which a lot of contact poison is concentrated. If the substance comes into contact with the skin, it is necessary to immediately wash the area under running water. In the same way, it infects other mushrooms that are in the basket with poison.
Where and how to grow
Amanita muscaria is common in Europe and Asia. The poisonous mushroom is found everywhere. Often found in wet areas of broad-leaved forests, plantings, where soils are rich in lime. It is also found in mixed forests, where conifers also grow. The appearance of the first white fly agarics begins in June and continues until autumn frosts.
Edible white fly agaric or not
Fly agaric white smelly – poisonous, inedible mushroom. The action of its toxins occurs:
- through the use of pulp, which in most cases leads to death;
- even touching the sticky coating that covers the fruiting body can cause significant harm to health;
- getting into the basket along with other species, they poison almost all fruiting bodies, and after use, the deadly poison enters the human body, causing moderate poisoning at best.
Symptoms of poisoning, first aid
Having accidentally consumed even a small young white fly agaric containing a strong toxin muscarine, after the shortest time, 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 secretion of saliva and sweat.
To the pronounced symptoms of poisoning are added:
- feeling of unquenched thirst;
- painful spasms in the muscles;
- the pulse is weakly palpable;
- pressure drops sharply;
- the pupils constrict and vision is impaired;
- sometimes there is a loss of consciousness;
- jaundice develops outwardly;
- when probing, an increase in the liver is noticeable.
The first actions that can be taken before the arrival of doctors are gastric lavage and the use of activated charcoal, enterosorbent.
Recovery can occur if the person was able to get to the hospital before 36 hours had elapsed from the time the mushroom was consumed. 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.
Twins and their differences
Fly agaric white spring is dangerous because next to it twins very similar to it can grow, which people often collect:
- conditionally edible white float;
- volvariella beautiful, or mucushead;
- 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 that the conditionally edible mushroom has no ring on the stem. As well as the unpleasant smell that the pulp of the poisonous mushroom emits, in contrast to the weak mushroom of the float. But they are difficult to recognize for an inexperienced mushroom picker, since the white float also belongs to the Amanita genus. It is often found under birch trees, and the stem is also immersed in the Volvo, but higher – it can be up to 20 cm. Young caps are ovoid, elongated.
Another conditionally edible mushroom, the mucohead volvariella, or beautiful, which is part of the Plyuteev family, also does not have a ring on the leg, but there is a bag-shaped volva. The species is distinguished by pinkish plates, a larger fruiting body and the absence of odor from the pulp.
How to distinguish a white fly agaric from an umbrella
Being a representative of the Champignon family, the white umbel is edible; it holds a large, fleshy hat with a pleasant smell on a high, thin leg, surrounded by a ring. There is no Volvo species. It grows under trees, as well as in meadows and steppes.
Amanita spring is distinguished from a white umbrella in the following ways:
- near the thickening at the base of the leg there is a cup-shaped volva;
- the leg is soft, in contrast to the hard-fibred umbrellas;
- an unpleasant odor at the break of the pulp.
How is it different from champignon
At the beginning of the growth of spring grebes, they can be easily taken by picking young champignons. In the field species, as well as in the large-spored, as well as in the meadow, at a young age, light hemispherical hats and plates are almost the same as the spring fly agaric. When the cover is torn, a ring remains on the mushroom stem. But in adult mushrooms, the plates are pinkish, later they turn brown, and this differs from the white fly agaric.
Edible champignons are distinguished from white fly agaric:
- in the absence of a tuberous thickening at the base of the leg;
- pleasant mushroom scent.
Another deadly poisonous double of the spring fly agaric is the pale grebe, which is distinguished by a darker color of the whitish cap. In addition, a sweetish aroma is noticeable from a pale toadstool.
Conclusion
The white fly agaric is widely distributed, has several very similar conditionally edible or generally recognized edible counterparts with high nutritional properties, like mushrooms. 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 characteristics of dangerous doubles in order to eliminate the risk.
