Cap: bright scarlet to orange-red with scattered whitish or yellowish fragments of veil particularly towards the centre and hanging down from the margin, viscid when moist, striate at margin with age.
Stem: white, striate above the soft easily torn, although prominent, ring which is white above and yellow below; stem-base swollen and ornamented with patches of yellowish or white veil-fragments which form concentric rings or ridges of tissue.
Gills: white, free, crowded, fairly thick, minutely toothed at their edge.
Flesh: soft, lacking distinctive smell, or at times slightly earthy and white, yellowish below cap-centre.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: long, hyaline under the microscope, ellipsoid, smooth about 10 × 7 µm in size (10-13 × 7-8 µm).
Marginal cystidia: composed of chains of swollen, hyaline cells.
Facial cystidia: absent.
Habitat & Distribution: Found in birch-woods, less frequently collected in the vicinity of conifers; wide-spread and fairly common, but it is erratic in its appearance giving the impression of being absent from a locality until one season it suddenly fruits in profusion.
General Information: An easily recognised fungus because of its striking colour. It is also very familiar and well-known because it appears so often on Christmas cards, and features commonly in illustrations in children’s story-books. The fungus contains a poison which formerly was used to kill flies—hence the common name of ‘Fly agaric’ and the scientific name from the latin name for the house-fly. The red skin of the cap, where the major amount of the poison resides, was cut up with a little milk and sugar or honey; flies attracted to this sweet concoction inadvertently ate the poison and later perished. This fungus has a very well documented and long history and appears in the legends of many countries. It is featured in Greek mythology, Slavic and Scandinavian folk-lore and indeed appears in the pre-history of Indian tribes of N.E. Asia. It has even been connected with the formation of certain sects within the early Christian church.