BASIDIOMYCETES: Agaricales, Amanitaceae

Death Cap, Amanita phalloides

Basidiomycetes, order: Agaricales, family: Amanitaceae

Height to 6"

This deadly mushroom has a cap up to 6" wide, convex to flattened, smooth, and colored variable shades of green to pale brown, darker toward the center. Stalk is pale green, sometimes scaly, and enlarged at the base where it arises out of a white, cup-shaped volva. There is a membranous, skirtlike collar below the cap. Gills are free or slightly attached, white to pale green. Spore print is white. The Death Cap grows on the ground in a variety of habitats, including mixed woodlands (especially oak) and lawns, throughout North America during the late fall and early winter. It is poisonous and deadly.