Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Amanita

Needless to say, this photo is posted just for the record, not for photographic quality! I will add a previously posted photo in a comment box below, of one of the Amanitas seen in the very same spot three years ago. Though neither photo was taken at Rod Handfield's place, but a few minutes' drive away, I am including them in that album. Yesterday morning, 17 September 2015, I went with friends on a walk that started (after the first heavy frost of the season overnight) at the Bow Valley Ranch area in Fish Creek Park. We then drove to the end of the park road, to walk in the Boat Launch area. Perhaps the highlight of the morning was seeing a very distant female Pileated Woodpecker, plus 35 American White Pelicans and 20 Double-crested Cormorants and all "the usual". After the walk, I decided to drive SW of the city and SW of Millarville. A few years ago, after a day of botanizing someone's land, we called in (with permission) at a nearby field to see a wonderful display of Amanita mushrooms. We don't get the red ones (Fly Agaric / Amanita muscaria) with small white spots here, but we have seen bright yellow ones and sometimes even an almost orange one, with small white spots/flecks. I think I have only ever seen these three times - at West Bragg Creek, Rod Handfield's and this field near to his land, and I think Marsden Creek in Kananaskis. I was so longing to see one again and thought it was worth the drive just to check. Well, I found the field easily, but had forgotten about the sign there that said No Trespassing, No shooting, Patrol Area. I wasn't sure what Patrol Area meant, but I could almost imagine several Dobermans being released to attack me! I never go anywhere that has a No Trespassing sign, anyway. So, I walked through the trees along the edge of the field and tried to peer into the field, being careful not to catch the barbed-wire fence. I caught sight of this cluster of maybe three fungi that looked like they were Amanitas, though they were fully "opened" and I couldn't see any spots from that distance. Got this lousy photo, but I did want to add it to my album and maybe it will be enough for ID confirmation or correction sometime? Have just read on the Internet that "The cap is spherical or oval on very young specimens, opening out to a convex shape. With age, they become broadly convex, planar, or plano-depressed. The margin of the cap is often lined, particularly in more mature specimens." The cap margins in my photo are definitely "lined". It was a lovely, sunny day yesterday, with a high of 15C, and the scenery I drove through was beautiful. Thankfully, the orange Engine Warning light didn't come on in my car at all. Next time it does come on, I have to take the car to be checked again and hopefully they can find a code that will tell them what is causing this problem. They couldn't find any codes when they had my car a few days ago, which is frustrating.

This is an Amanita muscaria, Fly Agaric, seen on 20th August at West Bragg Creek Provincial Park. Though it is very attractive, it is also poisonous.

For me, this beautiful Amanita mushroom, along with several others at different stages, was the highlight of a day of botanazing at one of my favourite places. Rod Handfield, who has a beautiful property SW of the city, near Millarville, allows us to go and explore his forest, searching especially for any fungi. This year was not as good as a couple of other years, but there were enough mushrooms and other fungi to make our day worthwhile. These Amanitas weren't actually growing in his forest but were maybe a ten-minute drive away. "A large conspicuous mushroom, Amanita muscaria is generally common and numerous where it grows, and is often found in groups with basidiocarps in all stages of development. Fly agaric fruiting bodies emerge from the soil looking like a white egg, covered in the white warty material of the universal veil... Amanita muscaria poisoning occurs in either young children or people ingesting it to have a hallucinogenic experience... A fatal dose has been calculated at an amount of 15 caps. Deaths from this fungus A. muscaria have been reported in historical journal articles and newspaper reports. However, with modern medical treatment a fatal outcome because of the poison of this mushroom would be extremely rare." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria

When a friend bent over to check on this partly-hidden mushroom, I realized just what it was! It is very rare that we come across one of these Amanitas, and it's so exciting and such a treat when we do! Isn't it beautiful and amazing? Of course, it's just a "fungi nut" talking, LOL. This is a zoomed-in shot, so it was only small in reality. Seen when we were botanizing Rod Handfield's acreage, near Millarville, south west of the city, on 17th August. Smoke haze from the BC fires is pretty bad in Calgary again today.