fly agaric is the red mushroom with white dots.
fly agaric is the red mushroom with white dots.
what is the red mushroom with white dots?
fly agaric
although very distinctive in appearance, the fly agaric has been mistaken for other yellow to red mushroom species in the americas, such as "armillaria" cf. "mellea" and the edible "amanita basii"—a mexican species similar to "a. caesarea" of europe. poison control centres in the u.s. and canada have become aware that "amarill" (spanish for 'yellow') is a common name for the "a. caesarea"-like species in mexico. "amanita caesarea" is distinguished by its entirely orange to red cap, which lacks the numerous white warty spots of the fly agaric. furthermore, the stem, gills and ring of "a. caesarea" are bright yellow, not white. the volva is a distinct white bag, not broken into scales. in australia, the introduced fly agaric may be confused with the native vermilion grisette ("amanita xanthocephala"), which grows in association with eucalypts. the latter species generally lacks the white warts of "a. muscaria" and bears no ring.
amanita muscaria
in 1995, questions arose about another purported calder, "two white dots" (this piece is distinguished from a similarly-named piece, "two white dots in the air", created by calder in 1958). calder created a high sheet metal maquette in 1973 for an unrealized stabile he called "two white dots". he gave this maquette to carmen segretario, founder and owner of the segré foundry of waterbury, connecticut. for decades, calder had utilized the services of segré foundry in manufacturing his mobiles and stabiles. each piece (no matter how many copies were made) would be initialled personally by calder in white chalk, after which a welder would follow the chalk marks to burn the initials into the work. calder died in 1976, without a full-size version of "two white dots" ever having been made. in 1982, segretario constructed a full-size version of "two white dots", and sold it in 1983 to art dealer shirley teplitz for $70,000. segetario's documentation claimed that the work had been fabricated around 1974 "under the supervision and direction of artist". "two white dots" was then sold at auction in may 1984 for $187,000. over the next decade, the piece was sold repeatedly. in 1995, jon shirley (the former president of microsoft and a calder collector) purchased "two white dots" for $1 million. when shirley submitted the work to the calder foundation for inclusion in their catalogue raisonné, the foundation contested the work's authenticity. the andré emmerich gallery refunded shirley's money, and sued the segré foundry, which sought bankruptcy protection. the suit was settled out of court in the late 1990s. "two white dots" now resides outdoors on a farm near a river outside the small town of washington, connecticut.
alexander calder