The Urban Pantheist

I already posted this little group of mushrooms, deeming them to belong to an "unknown Amanita sp." but after some research--most importantly, looking at my own photos from the same area in previous years--I'm prepared to go out on a limb. These appear to the Amanita species complex called "the blusher." At the moment our Northeast species goes by the same scientific name as the European one: A. rubescens* but as mycology progresses, we are likely to have our own name for our own mushroom.

This mushroom has all the classic field markings of the Amanita group: a warty cap, a partial veil that becomes a skirt-like ring, white spores, gills that don't touch the stem, and a swelling at the sub-soil level of the stem. Additionally, the blusher tends toward reddish hues, becoming more so when cut or bruised. Field guides say that the European variety is edible, once the toxins are ruined by cooking. This group contains many poisonous mushrooms, including the mushrooms that have killed more people than any other, which contain poisons that are not deactivated by cooking. Prudent sources advise: just don't.



* Mushroom, becoming red.