Fly Agaric Host

[Ditiola]

Hi
Having found lots of Amanita muscaria with Betula and a few with Fagus (I have not yet found it with Pinus) I was surprised to find it a few years ago on a golf course under an isolated tree of Nothofagus antartica, and then a few years latter on another golf course under an isolated tree of Castanea sativa. And today at a local cemetery I found it under an isolated tree of Nothofagus obliqua.

Has anyone else found it under any other trees?

Peter

[ColdRed]

Ive found large ammounts of it growing under Holly last year

[Chris Yeates]

hi Peter

Jerry Cooper (who I know you know well) assures me that in New Zealand (where it is an alien introduction) it forms associations with any tree going and may well be a threat to native agarics - indeed a fungal "weed"; there are obviously some limitations on it in this country to (in general terms) usually to occur with Betula

of course with a number of other fungal species Betula can be an "honorary conifer" . . . . think Lactarius rufus amongst others

Chris

[cowshill]

A. muscaria is plentiful in the spruce plantations where I walk here in the north. In fact, after a slow start this is turning into a banner year for them. We had a very dry summer, and the amanitas made a half-hearted start in August and then disappeared. With the fall rains now coming regularly, a. muscaria is popping up with a vengeance, but the other amanitas are still nowhere to be seen.

Usually we have a wide variety of fungi that the local deer browse on, but most of these are absent this fall, so the muscaria are being consumed the moment they pop up. For the most part I see them just poking through the ground or in the early ball stage just starting to show their colour. Then they are gone. What I mostly see are patches with 15 or 20 white circles in the ground - all that is left after the deer have eaten off everything above ground.

- Jim

[SheffieldLass]

Agree, extremely plentiful in monoculture Picea here, though this would have been heath at one time ... and the particular stand I'm thinking of is truly monoculture, not a single birch or other tree in it .. it is one of the FC research stands, and appears to have been very carefully managed to not have other species creep in. Mind you it is quite a young stand and the stumps from what was there before have not completely rotted away yet (they were coniferous though, or at least most were).

Interesting ... I've just double checked my FC map of the stands, and I've just realised that the compartments that form the research area (which also has a stand of monoculture birch, as well as some more varied stands) is a particular hot spot for fungi. Whether that is coincidence or whether it is to do with the particular way they are managing it ..... It's got me thinking that I ought to check out their other research compartments ....

Melanie

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by cowshill

Usually we have a wide variety of fungi that the local deer browse on, but most of these are absent this fall, so the muscaria are being consumed the moment they pop up. For the most part I see them just poking through the ground or in the early ball stage just starting to show their colour. Then they are gone. What I mostly see are patches with 15 or 20 white circles in the ground - all that is left after the deer have eaten off everything above ground.

- Jim

Are the deer acting a bit strangely, given their current diet?

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by Ditiola

Hi
.... I was surprised to find it a few years ago on a golf course under an isolated tree of Nothofagus antartica, and then a few years latter on another golf course under an isolated tree of Castanea sativa. And today at a local cemetery I found it under an isolated tree of Nothofagus obliqua.

Has anyone else found it under any other trees?

Peter

Could the connection with the golf courses be important .. were they/are they still fundamentally heath?

[cowshill]

Originally Posted by SheffieldLass

Are the deer acting a bit strangely, given their current diet?

Not that I've noticed. But then I don't see them very often.

- Jim