Hiding in the grass - Amanita muscaria

For me, this beautiful Amanita mushroom, along with several others at different stages, was the highlight of a day of botanazing at one of my favourite places. Rod Handfield, who has a beautiful property SW of the city, near Millarville, allows us to go and explore his forest, searching especially for any fungi. This year was not as good as a couple of other years, but there were enough mushrooms and other fungi to make our day worthwhile. These Amanitas weren't actually growing in his forest but were maybe a ten-minute drive away.

"A 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. Fly agaric fruiting bodies emerge from the soil looking like a white egg, covered in the white warty material of the universal veil... Amanita muscaria poisoning occurs in either young children or people ingesting it to have a hallucinogenic experience... A fatal dose has been calculated at an amount of 15 caps. Deaths from this fungus A. muscaria have been reported in historical journal articles and newspaper reports. However, with modern medical treatment a fatal outcome because of the poison of this mushroom would be extremely rare."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria