I frequent these coniferous patches when hiking, and after a good cool rain I see these pop up around the base of the tree, usually in 3-4 scattered around the tree. Temp is around low 80s, with low 60s at night. The temps will be dipping down real steep here soon for fall.

Not sure if anyone that knows amanitas and the vars. to be able to i.d. these? (If they're indeed a type of amanita at all?)

Regardless im not going to eat it; I just wanted to pick it because of how it looked.

Definitely amanita. Where I live, we have identical ones popping out of the pine needles all over the place after rain. Besides the muscarias, there seems to be a variety that range from almost pure white to quite yellow.

I leave them be, but the small fauna seem to have no problem with eating any of them.

I think it's either amanita citrina or amanita gemmata. Rainfall can cause the yellow color to slightly fade, so they can easily be confused. The citrina is just a little toxic. The gemmata is actually psycho-active.

It would help to know the region these were found in, but they are an amanita of some sort for sure. I have tried to find some around me, but never have any luck. I would never eat it either, would just be cool to find and photograph.

@dragonrider: I think of those two you mentioned, it could be amanita gemmata. The citrina looks almost straight white in the google pics, no yellow whatsoever. This is a very discrete yellow, no 'light yellow' or anything like that. I appreciate the input.

@dtrypt: Yeah man, they're all over this huge stretch of forest throughout all these conifers, right at the base of the trees. I really need to take photos and start noting what I see out where I go, it's pretty remote and there's a huge diversity of different kinds of mush.



** I know there's several different yellow amanitas out there; makes it all the more confusing.

Oh, im sorry, it's midwest/up north; near the great lakes region.

Well, the shroomery has a nice amanita guide, and im compiling the things that match:

- Fuzzy/velvety spots[white]

- Distinct yellow cap

- Base of the stipe is bulbous/egg shaped.

- Just above the bulbous base of the stipe, there's areas of shagginess

- The gills are white. Close spacing.


**come to think either : amanita muscaria var. guessowii, amanita crenulata, or amanita gemmata


[Thanks again for the input]

I'm not sure, but i believe that the muscaria should not realy be yellow, but rather a sort of gold-like. You can't realy see that on a photo, but it looks like it's polished and shiny.

Well, found a few more a few days back. These are much better pictures. These I came across in a patch near a coniferous tree.

Bright-yellow/yellow cap fading to a light orange/yellow in the center. Felt type warts [white] covering the cap. Stipe's white, and as you go down the stipe there's concentric style shagginess going all the way down to the basal bulb. White/close style gills.

I really do think they're amanita muscaria var. guessowiis.



** I know some of the caps look really white/light. It's just the lighting. They're a very distinct yellow/bright yellow.

Well they're beautiful, that's for sure.

Thanks

Judging by the needles on the floor, they seem to be growing beneath pine trees. Are there any other types of tree in the immediate vicinity?


Also, spore prints and microscopy would be useful here. There are a number of reagent tests used in mycology although I don't know if they'd be useful in distinguishing your short-list of species. This would be worth looking into.



Agreed!

Yes, they're from a coniferous forest; most being near the base of the tree.

Deciduous forest is about a mile away.

A good rain today. Got pretty soaked lol. Today I actively sought out amanitas [like actually attempted to go find some, and not my typical hike]. Found more.

All found littered smack dab out in the middle of this huge coniferous forest

Well, these ones definately look like muscaria, with that darker tone of orange in the middle. Sometimes it's just difficult to tell because the colour can fade due to excessive rainfall. That even happens with bright red muscaria's that turn orange.

But it's also the case with pantherina's, wich is why picking pantherina's for consumption çan be a realy dangerous thing to do. After excessive rainfall, pantherina's turn pale and they start to look a lot like amanita phalloides, wich is one of the most toxic mushrooms.

Yup exactly. Fading, my lighting choices with the camera, the heavy rain, etc.

Yeah, it was pouring today, and the felt-like warts just end up falling/dissolving right off after handling then, even if the caps are covered with them. So if it's a good rain I can see that proving issues for the people picking, or at least muddle up the process a bit. Then again there's quite a few signs other than just the warts, so.

Well, I officially found out from a local reliable source that they're indeed guessowiis. And low dosages apparently of the guessowii are fairly nice it seems, from the few anecdotals I read. Obviously amanitas are more variable than that, so caution's got to be exercised.

I went ahead and took one patch and dried them via dehydrator. Crumbly powder brittle. 1/6 of a cap just to gauge. Not going to try anything significant; mainly would like to mess with real low dosages used consistently.

** I know a couple look lighter, but they're all the same orange/yellow color in person. The lighting and whatnot was goofy in this picture.

I have some experience with this variety and in general I think it is more potent and more desirable alms than red muscaria. Start with 1 gram you will feel it.
Had some great times with amanitas, one time though I had a poisoning experience that was kinda scary, and i haven't confirmed this as fact but I believe it's cause I drank 2 vitamin c boost drinks about 2 hours after ingesting, and I think the vitamin c really made it more toxic, cause I had used that same dose of the same shrooms many times before this happened

Cheers

Thanks for the response BtO.

I just ate a 1/4 cap today; dried to a crisp. Within 30 minutes i definitely started feeling 'something', definitely no placebo lol. And for reference the cap that I ate part of was originally the size of my hand/fingers fully extended.

I ended up taking two medium sized caps, parboiling them for 2x30 minute boils. Then fried in butter, garlic, pepper, alt. Pan fried to a crisp outside, Very tasty.

Im in the NE and these have been popping up like mad recently. I was too scurred to try ingesting any, but I've been curious about the effects of amanitas so maybe I'll indulge with caution.

The timing of this thread is actually kind of funny. I've been spotting all sorts of cool fungi in the area, including these yellow amanitas, that never used to grow here. I've been meaning to ask if others have noticed anything similar? I've attributed it as an indicator of local climate change, as the summer and fall seasons are getting increasingly humid/wet each year.

The amanitas I found in our yard were growing near, but not under, a white pine. Most of the trees here are coniferous, but the majority of the "new" mushrooms I've been seeing are in close proximity to coniferous species.