Amanita muscaria

Amanita muscaria ~ The Fly Agaric

It was pretty cool to see these little guys for the first time. They are the mushroom of many legends and the darling of popular culture. In Europe, during the long winters, reindeer will eat the fly agaric and actually get high, prancing around and making odd noises.

The white specks on the cap are actually
the fragmented remains of the veil

I saw these whilst wandering on a lovely damp morning in May 2012. These were growing nestled in under the fringes of a pine plantation up in the mountains of the Huon Valley (roughly 600ft) in Tasmania.