I photographed a nibbled Amanita last year and just finished painting it. This is Amanita muscaria var. guessowii, commonly known as the American yellow fly agaric. I just learned what the white spots are by reading about this fungi on Wikipedia. “The volva is distributed over the cap as cream to pale tan warts…” What’s a volva? “In mycology, a volva is a cup-like structure at the base of a mushroom that is a remnant of the universal veil, or the remains of the peridium that encloses the immature fruit bodies of gasteroid fungi.” Well, there you go. Those spots are remnants of the universal veil!

Some little creature seemed to enjoy nibbling this Amanita. I’m not going to! One site I found said, “Despite it being toxic to us, there are some animals that do eat fly agaric. These include red squirrels and slugs.”

Painting this fungi and the last couple spring flowers I did was an exercise in getting up close and cozy in the leaves. It’s a very different experience from painting landscapes.