Snapped a pic of this cutie awhile ago. Beautiful.
Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on the identification, fairly confident but mushrooms do be sneaky.
I actually think this is an Amanita aprica, or the Sunshine Amanita. But it is sometimes possible to find muscarias that are paler than their usual distinctive red.
The way to know for certain would be checking what time of year you found it, where you found it, and what kind of tree and habitat it was in.
Found in Summer in the Pacific Northwest on a hike, and forest was mixed evergreen and deciduous.
Based on pics it really could be either.
Thanks for the reply!
In that case, I am torn between the Amanita muscaria variant guessowii, or possibly even an Amanita chrysoblema. Absolutely stunning find either way. We very rarely get the yellow variants of muscaria in my locale, they are beautiful. Thanks for the picture :)
I actually would lean towards A. Aprica based on the stature and that the warts look pretty flat but it’s hard to really tell without seeing the underside and volva.
Edit: I just noticed the margin of the cap isn’t striate (for those following along, there are no ridges at the edge of the cap where the gills are) so it’s almost certainly Amanita Aprica.
If it is a Muscarioid, then A. Chrysoblema is probably correct because genetic testing has shown that all native PNW muscarioids are color forms of the same species/variety so we don’t need to worry about picking a variety from the color. A. Chrysoblema is one candidate for the correct name but it could also end up being that they’re all A. Muscaria Var. Flavivolvata (they all have off-white yellowish warts).
For now I usually just call them all “Amanita Muscaria” and leave it at that.
I originally thought Aprica straight away when I saw it and commented so above - but then kind of talked myself out of it on second inspection, because I couldn’t see any remnants of their distinctive universal veil on the cap.
I find it so fascinating that muscarias have such colour variations over there, where I am in Europe they are all deep, deep red. Only once have I seen a dark orange one. The light shades are lovely specimens.
Edit: actually, I take back my first statement. I think the white ring consistently around the rim is indeed what’s left of a singular veil, and that points to Amanita aprica.
Imo, at least the muscarias here in Finland are usually in season late in the year, but that’s not my main point. The colour can get that pale, but imo usually only on shrooms a bit older and already turning the cap upwards a bit.
I won’t say what it is, but I think it’s rather pale for muscaria, but there’s quite a few thousand kilometres between us so.
In North America there is a variant of muscaria found called guesowii, that is known colloquially as the American Yellow Fly Agaric. Also, muscaria can come into season in late summer in that region, whereas in Europe we do not see them until autumn is in full swing at least. If this was found early summer I would consider a different amanita ID to a muscaria as possibly a bit too early :)
Lovely. Certainly looks like Amanita muscaria to me! (Possibly var. formosa / guessowii)
heeeeey macarena
