Amanita rubescens

Amanita rubescens:

Common name: blusher.

Catalan: cua de cavall, rubiola, vinosa.

Basque: ardotsu.

Spanish: amanita rojiza

CHARACTERISTICS:

It has the shape of a hat, full of globules at first, convex, and flat later. Its colour is variable, toasted colour, pinkish, a shade of ochre, ochre grey, etc. Sprinkled of brownish warts. When it gets old, its colour generally becomes more vinous or reddish. Its little sheets are thick, flat, serrated and white, with a tendency to take a tonality of brownish red or organist red.

It has a thick and cylindrical pedicel, of vinous colour especially in the base, and it contains a membranous ring in the high part.

In the lower part, the mushroom finishes in a bulb-like thickening, apparently without volva, just some horizontal ring shape reliefs.

It mainly grows in mountains of medium and low height, populated with all kind of forest species. But it is very common in broad-leaved forests, in clay-calcareous lands, in rather sunny exposures, from the end of summer to an advanced period of autumn.

Its white flesh, when is cut, gets a vinous colour, mainly in the bottom part of the basis. It has sweet flavour and is nearly odourless.