Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a basidiomycete of the genus Amanita.
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Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a basidiomycete of the genus Amanita.
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Amanita muscaria, are noted for their hallucinogenic properties, with the main psychoactive constituents being the neurotoxins ibotenic acid and muscimol.
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Amanita muscaria described it in volume two of his Species Plantarum in 1753, giving it the name Agaricus muscarius, the specific epithet deriving from Latin musca meaning "fly".
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English mycologist John Ramsbottom reported that Amanita muscaria was used for getting rid of bugs in England and Sweden, and bug agaric was an old alternative name for the species.
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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.
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Amanita muscaria caesarea is distinguished by its entirely orange to red cap, which lacks the numerous white warty spots of the fly agaric.
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Amanita muscaria is a cosmopolitan mushroom, native to conifer and deciduous woodlands throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including higher elevations of warmer latitudes in regions such as Hindu Kush, the Mediterranean and Central America.
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Amanita muscaria poisoning has occurred in young children and in people who ingested the mushrooms for a hallucinogenic experience.
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Amanita muscaria contains several biologically active agents, at least one of which, muscimol, is known to be psychoactive.
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Many books list Amanita muscaria as deadly, but according to David Arora, this is an error that implies the mushroom is far more toxic than it is.
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The levels of muscarine in Amanita muscaria are minute when compared with other poisonous fungi such as Inosperma erubescens, the small white Clitocybe species C dealbata and C rivulosa.
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Amanita muscaria and related species are known as effective bioaccumulators of vanadium; some species concentrate vanadium to levels of up to 400 times those typically found in plants.
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In remote areas of Lithuania, Amanita muscaria has been consumed at wedding feasts, in which mushrooms were mixed with vodka.
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Amanita muscaria was widely used as an entheogen by many of the indigenous peoples of Siberia.
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Amanita muscaria is traditionally used for catching flies possibly due to its content of ibotenic acid and muscimol.
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Recently, an analysis of nine different methods for preparing A muscaria for catching flies in Slovenia have shown that the release of ibotenic acid and muscimol did not depend on the solvent and that thermal and mechanical processing led to faster extraction of ibotenic acid and muscimol.
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Amanita muscaria noted that descriptions of Soma omitted any description of roots, stems or seeds, which suggested a mushroom, and used the adjective hari "dazzling" or "flaming" which the author interprets as meaning red.
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Amanita muscaria concludes that if the theory were true, the use of the mushroom must have been "the best kept secret in the world" as it was so well concealed for two thousand years.
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