The fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a striking mushroom, which is common in the low countries. Eating it can lead to symptoms of poisoning, but its severity is usually not that high.
Fly agarics usually grow in deciduous forests, in close symbiosis with birch, sweet chestnut, oak, beech, also known as pine and spruce.
The best known appearance of the fly agaric is a dark red hat with white dots. The white dots are remnants of the entire shell in which the mushroom was 'trapped' before it emerged from the ground. In rainy weather, these flush from the cap fairly quickly.
The hat is 5-15 cm wide. The flesh, the plates and the spores are white. Fly agaric can occur from July until late autumn.
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