Yellow Orange Fly Agarics Fruiting
The Yellow Orange Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria var. formosa) is common in New England, especially where conifers grow. Out West this mushroom is often a bright red color, but in the East it’s typically orange/yellow.
When certain gilled mushrooms, including many Amanita species, first form they are encased in a membrane called a “universal veil.” As the mushroom enlarges and matures, the veil ruptures, with remnants of it remaining on the mushroom’s cap. Fly Agaric fungi got their name from the custom of placing little pieces of the mushroom in milk to attract flies. The flies supposedly become inebriated and crash into walls and die. This mushroom is somewhat poisonous (as are many Amanita species) and hallucinogenic when consumed by humans. The toxins affect the part of the brain that is responsible for fear, turning off the fear emotion. Vikings, who had a reputation for fierceness, are said to have ingested this mushroom prior to invading a village.
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Naturally Curious with Mary Holland 
I love the sequence illustrated in this photo. I have a forthcoming book of poems, including one called “Amanita Muscaria.” Here are a couple of stanzas from that poem:
Swaddled in the universal veil,
it pushes a blunt fontanelle into the light
which is no midwife, has nothing to do
with this force issuing from the underground
conspiracy of root, soil, and hypha,
this sudden eruption of flesh
asserting itself, expanding,
swaddled in the universal veil.
The slow crescendo of flesh and water
that erects the stipe ruptures the creamy membrane
to remnants clinging modestly,
a ragged lingerie for this organ of the earth.
Beneath the speckled yellow cap, the gills,
pallid and moist, await the flare of opening,
the ravishing touch of air that follows
the slow crescendo of flesh and water.
October 3, 2022 at 9:01 am
Kathie, above, already wrote it…it’s a wonderful photo with the three growth stages of this Agaric. We have many, in a meadow, behind us…and lots of pine trees…I think the speckles look like sesame seeds. Every day they look different. Interesting history.
October 3, 2022 at 9:28 am