Gray float (Amanita vaginata)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Amanitaceae (Amanitaceae)
- Genus: Amanita (Amanita)
- Species: Amanita vaginata (Gray float)
Synonyms:
Amanita muscaria
Amanitopsis vaginata
A gray float ( lat.Amanita vaginata ) is a mushroom from the genus Amanita of the Amanitaceae family.
Hat:
Diameter 5-10 cm, color from light gray to dark gray (often with a bias towards yellowness, brown specimens are also found), the shape is first ovoid-bell-shaped, then flat-convex, outstretched, with ribbed edges (the plates are visible), occasionally with large flocculent remnants of a common bedspread. The pulp is white, thin, rather brittle, with a pleasant taste, without any special smell.
Plates:
Loose, frequent, wide, pure white in young specimens, later turn yellow a little.
Spore powder:
White.
Leg:
Height up to 12 cm, thickness up to 1.5 cm, cylindrical, hollow, widened at the base, with an inconspicuous flocculent bloom, spotted, somewhat lighter than the cap. The vulva is large, free, yellow-red in color. The ring is missing, which is typical.
Spread:
The gray float is found everywhere in deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests, as well as in meadows, from July to September.
Similar species:
This mushroom can be easily distinguished from the poisonous representatives of the genus Amanita (Amanita phalloides, Amanita virosa) due to its loose saccular vulva, ribbed edges (the so-called “arrows” on the cap), and most importantly, the absence of a ring on the stem. The gray float differs from the closest relatives - in particular, from the saffron float (Amanita crocea) by the same color.
The float is gray, the form is white (Amanita vaginata var.alba) - the albino form of the float is gray. Grows in deciduous and mixed forests with the presence of birch, with which it forms mycorrhiza.
Edibility:
This mushroom is edible, but few people are enthusiastic: the very fragile flesh (although not fragile than most russules) and the unhealthy appearance of adult specimens scare off potential customers.
Notes:
In general, this whole group of amantite mushrooms without a ring, which many distinguish into a separate genus Amanitopsis, makes a strange impression: they want to be called "tame fly agaric". Indeed - they all start out as real fighting fly agarics - beautifully and uncompromisingly. Then…
It is clear with what they can be compared. With special striped flies like wasps. No danger - but also no charm.