Amanita muscaria

Often red or orange, with whitish veil remnants that rain can remove.

White to cream gills lie beneath the cap and do not join the stem.

A pale stem bears a ring and a swollen, scaled base.

Its mycelium forms close connections with tree roots: a mycorrhizal association.

The fungus supplies soil nutrients and water; the tree supplies sugars made through photosynthesis.

Mycelium is a network of fine fungal threads; a mushroom is its reproductive structure.

In Britain, fruiting bodies are commonly seen from late summer into early winter.

Fly agaric is poisonous. Its striking appearance does not make it edible.

Its spores are dispersed by wind.

The growing fungus forms a network of threads in its substrate.

A mushroom develops as a reproductive body above the substrate.

Dispersed spores can begin new mycelial growth when conditions permit.

In Britain it grows in woodland and heathland with trees such as birch, pine and spruce.

United Kingdom: A documented native occurrence region; this is not a complete global range.

A 2008 DNA study found distinct lineages among fungi then called Amanita muscaria. Broad historical records therefore need taxonomic checking before being treated as one uniform global population.