December Mushroom of the Month: Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria
🍄⭐The December mushroom of the month is the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria
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The Fly Agaric is one of those rare species known equally well by its scientific name, Amanita muscaria. It’s iconic red and white cap has made it a pop culture fav. Beyond that, it has a rich history of human use that reaches deep into the past. It has been associated with Santa Claus, who may have been a Siberian shaman, mysterious elixirs (like the soma of the Hindu Vedas) and even Jesus Christ (John Marco Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross). Today, its medical benefits are being rediscovered by a new crop of ethnomycologists and entrepreneurs.
Taxonomy + ID
Amanita muscaria is a widely distributed mushroom native to temperate and boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere, now also naturalized in the Southern Hemisphere, forming mycorrhizal relationships with various trees, especially firs and spruces.
The mushroom emerges as white eggs. Its maturing cap is covered with small, pyramid-shaped warts—these are remnants of the universal veil, a membrane that encloses the entire mushroom when it is still very young.
As it grows, the red colour appears and the warts become less prominent. The cap changes from globose to plate-like (2–12" wide). Age and rain can fade the colour and wash the warts away.
Mythical + Medicinal
Amanita muscaria’s link to Christmas traces back to Siberian shamans using it as an entheogen during the Winter Solstice. They delivered dried mushrooms to villagers, a process that converts ibotenic acid into more potent muscimol. This mushroom has also been postulated as the ingredient in the Vedic elixir, soma, and connected to early Christianity.
While muscimol is psychoactive, in small doses it has a wide range of medicinal benefits, including mood enhancement and relief from anxiety. There are a wide range of products on the market today that contain Amanita muscaria extract, but as the market is fairly unregulated it is highly suggested to research potential products and purchase from vetted companies.
