(Amanita muscaria)
The Fly Amanita Mushroom is very abundant in the Pacific Northwest and can be seen almost everywhere in the fall. The Amanita Muscaria Mushroom is a brightly coloured mushroom that’s familiar to everyone from the illustrations found in fairy storybooks. Amanita Muscaria is commonly found in autumn in alder woods or under pines. They are the most eye-catching mushrooms with their large caps of yellow, scarlet, or deep red, mottled with conspicuous warts. Quite beautiful.
I always get so excited when I am hiking in the fall and run into a group of these beautiful mushrooms. The colours are so varied, yet they are so colourful to see. My wife and I can spend hours getting photos of great specimens. I am not sure what drives this, it simply must be their beauty. Its not often that other shrooms have the same appeal as these do.
This mushroom has always been considered part of the fairy world. This mushroom is perhaps the oldest hallucinogenic plant known. It has been in use been in recorded use for over six thousand years.
Amanita Muscaria or as it is commonly called the fly agarics mushroom has been adopted by many cultures, in the Northern Hemisphere and worldwide to transport the person eating them to visionary realms.
Fly agaric mushrooms are believed to have been employed as a shamanic aid by the Vikings and are known to be used by the shamans of Siberia.
These mushrooms are very poisonous and most types will just make you extremely ill with only a few worldwide that are used by shamans, please do not eat the ones we have locally as they could do real harm or even cause your death.