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Amanita muscaria, fly agaric mushroom

Fly Agaric

Meaning of the Name

Amanita
Possibly from the Greek ‘amanitai’, ‘a fungus with no detail’ or, more possibly, from Amanon a mountain in Cilicia, now part of Turkey.
muscaria
From the Latin ‘musca’, ‘fly’ said to be because the mature cap turns upward forming a bowl which, filled with milk, was used as a flytrap.

Common Names and Synonyms

fly agaric, fly amanita, fly mushroom

How Poisonous, How Harmful?

The colourful appearance of the cap makes fly agaric a favourite in children's stories, playrooms and nurseries.

These unusually coloured fungi contain ibotenic acid and muscimol which are strongly psychoactive and can cause very rapid heartbeat and a drying in the mouth. Large amounts can produce fatal convulsions.
In particular, the active components affect the part of the brain dealing with fear. Use of the mushroom to get 'high' can lead users to place themselves in danger because of their perceived invincibility.

Watch a Video about Amanita muscaria, fly agaric

Incidents

There have been a number of specific incidents of Amanita poisoning, often leading to death.

Amanita muscaria

Folklore and Facts

An unusual feature of ibotenic acid is that a large proportion of any ingested is excreted in the urine. The urine of someone who has eaten fly agaric mushrooms becomes psychoactive itself within about an hour of ingestion.
For the Koryak people of the Kamchatka Peninsula, fly agaric was the only mind altering substance available, and then not in great quantities. They discovered that, if fresh mushrooms were in short supply, a second 'high' could be obtained by drinking urine, not necessarily your own. It was an act of hospitality to offer a visitor a glass of something warm if fresh fungus was not to hand.
In rituals, the order of rank of the tribe was reinforced by the ingestion of fresh mushrooms by the headman followed by progressive drinking of urine down through the social structure. It is not known if the urine retains its effects through repeated 'recycling' in this way but the junior members of the tribe would almost certainly have exhibited similar behaviour to avoid giving offence to someone from a higher level.
It is generally believed that the fearlessness produced by consuming this fungi was used by the Vikings to make some of them the much feared warriors whose unrestrained fighting is still commemorated today in the word 'berserk'.
Fly agaric is said to be what enables reindeer to fly on Christmas Eve. The BBC's 'Weird Nature' series had a piece about this and you can see this on the BBC's official YouTube channel. It would be nice to believe that Father Christmas wears red and white because of the colour of the mushroom. Sadly, Santa's outfit has much less romantic origins; in the 1930s an advertising executive for Coca Cola chose red to match the product colour leading to an end to Santa's depiction in others colours in addition to red, notably green.
Concern has been expressed recently that, following the classification of Psilocybe semilanceata, magic mushrooms, as Class A under the Misuse of Drugs Act, more people are turning to Amanita muscaria for recreational purposes and suffering as a result of its greater toxicity compared to the controlled fungi.
Because of its psychoactive properties, but more especially as an example of the lengths the human race will go to to get high, Amanita muscaria features in the Phantastica section of The Poison Garden website.

Psilocybe semilanceata

Think you know about magic mushrooms? Know how to recognise them from poisonous look-alikes? Find out here. And get clued up on how magic mushroom make you feel and what they do to your body...

AKA

Mushies, shroomies, shrooms, sillies, Liberty caps, the scientific name is Psilocybe mushrooms.

What is it?

There are two types of magic mushroom in the UK - Psilocybe cubensis and Psilocybe semilanceata. The most common one is Psilocybe semilanceata or the liberty cap. These contain compounds called psilocybin and psilocin which give you a mild trip.

Liberty caps are tan coloured. The cap is no more that 5-15mm across with a 'nipple' on top. They grow on grassy meadows where sheep and cows have grazed and appear between September and November. WARNING: There are some poisonous look-a-likes which may be harmful to consume.

Magic mushrooms can be eaten raw or dried, cooked in food or brewed up in tea.

How does it make you feel?

Liberty cap mushrooms make you feel giggly, a bit spaced out and mildly trippy. A trip lasts for about 4-5 hours and is generally much milder than LSD. Afterwards you may feel a bit flat and you might get an upset stomach.

As with any psychedelic drugs you can get a bad trip which can be quite scary.

What are the health effects?

The main worry with mushrooms is that you mistake a poisonous species for a liberty cap. Picking your own is pretty risky; there have been cases of fatal poisoning by amanita species.

Your body develops a tolerance to mushrooms very quickly. So if you take them two days in a row, you'll have to take more on the second day to get the same effect. Tolerance wears off in a few days.

Be very careful with Fly Agaric. Deaths are rare, but it is pretty nasty. You'll get twitching, sickness, drowsiness, low blood pressure and dizziness, salivation and a powerful trip all at the same time. Worse, you could go into coma.

The law

Magic Mushrooms are an illegal Class A drug. The maximum penalty for possession is 7 years in prison and life for supply. You can get an unlimited fine for both. Fly Agaric are not controlled.

Peyote Cactus

Peyote Cactus is a small, spineless cactus, (Lophophora williamsii), whose principal active ingredient is the hallucinogen mescaline. From earliest recorded time, peyote has been used by natives in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States as a part of traditional religious rites. Mescaline can be extracted from peyote or produced synthetically. Its crown, or 'button', is used for psychedelic purposes. It is cut from the cactus and dried into a hard brown disc. The disc, sometimes referred to as a 'mescal button', contains a methoxylated amphetamine. There are a number of cacti that are used for their hallucinogenic properties. The most common is the Peyote Cactus, found from central Mexico to southern Texas. Peyote contains relatively large quantities (one to six per cent of the plant's weight) of mescaline - a strong hallucinogen. Other cacti include the San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus pachanoi), from around the Andes, Doñana (Coryphantha macromeris) from northern Mexico and three related mescaline-bearing species from South America. Hallucinogenic cacti are quite rare in the UK, though the peyote cactus can be bought mail order or directly from some cacti-specialists or head shops. Hallucinogenic cacti are not illegal in the UK, unless prepared for consumption as a hallucinogen. This could include drying them, or cutting them into edible 'buttons'. It usually takes six to ten of these buttons to gain the desired effect. The peyote experience is different from that of pure mescaline - the former experience more intense and complex. This is due to the presence of many more alkaloids that affect mind and body such as hordenine, pellotine, anhalinine, anhalonine and tyramine. Some of these chemicals in combination apparently potentiate the effects of the mescaline and definitely alter some of the characteristics of the experience.

Effects And Risks Of Taking Peyote Cactus

Effects of Peyote Cactus:- The cacti's effects are in some ways similar to LSD, but longer lasting and more physical. Users typically vomit before entering a dreamlike state where sound and scale distort and visions appear. The trip can last up to 12 hours with the user deep in trance and detached from the world around them. Increased body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure; loss of appetite, sleeplessness, numbness, weakness, tremors. Terrifying thoughts, and anxiety, fears of insanity or losing control. Risks of Using Peyote Cactus:- Some users experience "flashbacks", or hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), which are reoccurrences of hallucinations long after ingesting the drug. The causes of these effects, which in some users occur after a single experience with the drug, are not known. Hallucinogen:- Are drug that produces hallucinations — distortion in perception of sights and sounds — and disturbances in emotion, judgment, and memory.

Is Peyote Cactus Addictive

Like most drugs it can make a user psychologically dependent so when they stop using it they feel depressed.

The Law And Peyote Cactus

The hallucinogen mescaline is a class A drug in the UK.

f.lux™ Better lighting...for your computer

Ever notice how people texting at night have that eerie blue glow?
Or wake up ready to write down the Next Great Idea, and get blinded by your computer screen?
During the day, computer screens look good—they're designed to look like the sun. But, at 9PM, 10PM, or 3AM, you probably shouldn't be looking at the sun.

f.lux

F.lux fixes this: it makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.
It's even possible that you're staying up too late because of your computer. You could use f.lux because it makes you sleep better, or you could just use it just because it makes your computer look better.
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