Fly Agaric

Amanita muscaria, Fly Agaric.  Beacon Wood Country Park, 8 October 2015.

It's fungus time!  You can see fungi all year round, but autumn is when they really proliferate.  And this post celebrates our most noticeable fungus (though not our commonest). 

These specimens of the Fly Agaric are in Beacon Wood Country Park, which contains a stretch of birch wood.  You can find Fly Agarics under several kinds of tree, but they do love birches, and this wood is full of them, dotted around singly and in groups. 

Here's a young one:

Young Amanita muscaria, Fly Agaric.  Beacon Wood Country Park, 8 October 2015.

The dots are part of a veil that encloses the young fruiting body, and gradually cracks and breaks up as the toadstool develops.  They may seem to be firmly attached but actually they can wash off in heavy rain, leaving a red and yellow cap that looks as though it might be something else until you get close.

Amanita muscaria, Fly Agaric.  Detail of the cap.  Beacon Wood Country Park, 8 October 2015.

Vivid!  Hallucinogenic!  And will make you quite ill if you consume it.  Apparently, if reindeer eat it you can drink their urine and not get such a bad effect, but I do not recommend this.  It is cruel to the reindeer.