Death Cap?

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spamel

Banned
Feb 15, 2005
6,833
21
48
Silkstone, Blighty!
Cretainly looks like one of the amanitas, looks very white on top in your picture though. You won't harm yourself touching it, you will get poisoned by ingestion so ensure you wash your hands before handling food if you've been picking them up, just in case.
 

JonBaker

Tenderfoot
Sep 24, 2007
65
0
50
Newcastle Upon Tyne
I didn't touch it because I was with my 1 and 3 year old and I didn't want any of the spores getting anywhere that could cause them harm - not easy to wash your hands in the middle of a wood.

The white top is one of the things that makes me think it isn't a death cap. May be it is a Amanita abrupta?
 

JonBaker

Tenderfoot
Sep 24, 2007
65
0
50
Newcastle Upon Tyne
The destroying angle seems to have quite a smooth cap - a bit different shape as well.

This just highlights to me how fungus identification can be a bit dodgy if you don't know what you are doing.
 

Shewie

Mod
Mod
Dec 15, 2005
24,259
24
48
Yorkshire
They do come in various shapes and sizes but you`re right about the smooth cap.

That`s why I always end my fungi ID comments with a question mark


Rich
 

Staghound

Forager
Apr 14, 2008
233
0
54
Powys
www.mid-waleslogbuildings.co.uk
The flaky look to the top of the cap, the smooth stem and prominent ring together with the fact that it is growing with beech trees make me suspect that it may be the white variety of the False Death Cap, Amanita citrina var. alba. There is an all white variety of the Death Cap, Amanita phalloides var. alba, but it usually has a smooth cap.

A. citrina is supposedly edible but unpleasant tasting and easy to confuse with A.phalloides, so why would anyone bother?


ps. I think A. abrupta is only found in N. America.
 

xylaria

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Amantia strobiliformis because it has a fleesy skirt around the edge of the the cap. It is very white for one though, but rain can wash the colour out of some amanitas The volva at the base should fused to the stem.

I am presuming no-one is stupid enough to eat one based on a ropey ID over the internet.

Nobody is that stupid are they?
 

robwolf

Tenderfoot
Aug 16, 2008
86
0
57
thetford norfolk
hi it looks to me like false death cap as we have both deathcap and false death cap at work ,.if its the false one it should smell like raw potato...regards rob
 

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