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The white fly agaric is a member of the Amanitaceae family. In the literature it is also found 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 agarics because of the color of the fruiting body, is widely represented in deciduous plantings of Eurasia.Some scientists consider the spring grebe to be a species of pallid grebe based on the similar structure and chemical composition of the fibers. The spring grebe is ubiquitous compared to the real one. As you can see from the photo, the spring fly agaric is similar to the toadstool in appearance. Both dangerous mushrooms belong to the same family and genus. It is believed that the poisonous mushroom gets its name from its destructive effect on flies and other insects. Among fly agarics, there are many species of different colors, they are similar only in shape.
What does a white fly agaric look like?
When going into the forest, you should carefully study the various descriptions and photos of a frequently encountered dangerous species.
Description of the cap
The white fly agaric, as in the photo, has a medium-sized cap 3-11 cm wide. In the first days of growth, the shape is spherical or round-conical, the edges are concave inward. Then it gradually straightens out 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 cap of the white fly agaric looks like an inverted saucer. The skin is velvety and smooth in appearance. From a distance, without breaking the fruiting body, it does not have any strong odor.
The color of young and old mushrooms is the same: white or with a light cream tint.
The pulp is white, dense, and after breaking, which for safety reasons can only be done with intact rubber gloves, emits an unpleasant odor.
The bottom of the cap is made up of spore-bearing plates - white or slightly pink at any age, wide, densely located. Spore powder is white.In young fly agarics, the lamellar layer is covered with a white blanket, which breaks during growth and becomes a ring on the stalk - with torn edges, the same white color as the stalk 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 and the stalk. The same enlargement, but much larger in volume, is located at the bottom of the stem, covered with a volva, a kind of cup-shaped or fragmentary, scale-like formation that is located around the thickened tuber. In young mushrooms, the volva can occupy one third of the entire height of the stem and rises to 3-4 cm.
The cylindrical surface of the leg is rough, fibrous, and may be covered with small scales underneath. Up close, a slight sticky coating is noticeable on the stem, in which a lot of contact poison is concentrated. If the substance comes into contact with the skin, 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 does it grow
The white fly agaric is common in Europe and Asia. The poisonous mushroom is found everywhere. Often found in damp areas of deciduous forests and plantings where soils are rich in lime. It is also found in mixed forests, where coniferous species also grow. The appearance of the first white fly agarics begins in June and continues until autumn frosts.
Is the white fly agaric edible or not?
White stinking fly agaric is a poisonous, inedible mushroom. The action of its toxins occurs:
- through consumption of pulp, which in most cases leads to death;
- even touching the sticky coating that covers the fruit body can cause significant harm to health;
- getting into the basket along with other species, they poison almost all the fruiting bodies, and after consumption, the deadly poison enters the human body, causing, at best, moderate poisoning.
Symptoms of poisoning, first aid
Having accidentally consumed even a small young white fly agaric containing the strong toxin muscarine, after at least 30 minutes, 2-6 hours or sometimes after two days, victims experience problems with the gastrointestinal tract:
- incessant vomiting;
- intestinal colic;
- bloody diarrhea;
- intense secretion of saliva and sweat.
The following are added to the pronounced symptoms of poisoning:
- feeling of unquenchable thirst;
- painful muscle spasms;
- the pulse is weakly palpable;
- pressure drops sharply;
- the pupils narrow and vision is impaired;
- sometimes loss of consciousness occurs;
- jaundice develops externally;
- When palpated, an enlarged liver is noticeable.
The first actions that can be taken before the arrival of doctors are gastric lavage and the use of activated carbon and enterosorbent.
Recovery can occur if the person is able to get to the hospital before 36 hours have passed since consuming the mushrooms. 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 during the first 48 hours, while the action of toxins inside the body leads to irreversible phenomena.
Doubles and their differences
The white spring fly agaric is dangerous because doubles that are very similar to it can grow next to it, which people often collect:
- conditionally edible white float;
- volvariella is beautiful, or mucohead;
- white umbrella;
- young champignons.
Going on a quiet hunt for mushrooms that resemble the dangerous white fly agaric, they study photos and descriptions of their poisonous counterpart.
The main difference between the spring toadstool and the white float is the absence of a ring on the stalk of the conditionally edible mushroom. And also the unpleasant odor that the flesh of the poisonous mushroom emits, in contrast to the weak mushroom odor near the float. But they are difficult to recognize for an inexperienced mushroom picker, since the white float also belongs to the fly agaric genus. It is often found under birch trees, and the leg is also immersed in the volva, but higher - it can be up to 20 cm. The young caps are ovoid, elongated.
Another conditionally edible mushroom, Volvariella mucocephala, or beautiful, which is part of the Pluteaceae family, also does not have a ring on the stalk, but has a sac-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 umbrella is edible and holds a large, fleshy cap with a pleasant smell on a tall, thin stalk surrounded by a ring. The species does not have a volva. It grows under trees, as well as in meadows and steppes.
The spring fly agaric is distinguished from the white umbrella by the following parameters:
- near the thickening at the base of the stalk there is a cup-shaped volva;
- the leg is soft, in contrast to the hard-fibrous one of umbrellas;
- unpleasant odor on the broken flesh.
How is it different from champignon?
At the beginning of the growth of spring toadstools, they can easily be taken by collecting young champignons. The field species, like the large-spored one, as well as the meadow one, at a young age has light hemispherical caps and plates almost identical to spring fly agarics. When the cover is torn, a ring remains on the leg of the champignon. But in adult mushrooms the plates are pinkish, later turn brown, and this differs from white fly agaric mushrooms.
Edible champignons are distinguished from white fly agaric:
- due to the absence of a tuberous thickening at the base of the stalk;
- pleasant mushroom smell.
Another deadly poisonous counterpart of the spring fly agaric is the pale grebe, which is distinguished by a darker color of the whitish cap. In addition, the pale toadstool has a sweetish aroma.
Conclusion
The white fly agaric is widespread, has several very similar conditionally edible or generally recognized edible counterparts with high nutritional properties, like champignons. The poison of the species is highly toxic, leaving almost no chance of survival after eating even a small piece of pulp. Before picking mushrooms, carefully study the characteristics of dangerous doubles to eliminate the risk.
