Souvenir sheet of USSR 1986 - Deadly mushrooms. (5 sheets)

Amanita phalloides, commonly known as the death cap, is a deathly mushroom with a long period of latency as its poisons cause major damage to the liver and the kidneys. The death cap is so poisonous that it should not put even into the same basket with mushrooms intended for the kitchen, which can then become equally poisonous. In Estonia the death cap grows in broadleaved forests in August and September. Its cap is greyish, yellowish, and brownish green, olive brown in the centre. When old the cap is up to 15 cm across and slimy fibrous yellowish brown with no fluffs. The cap is slightly sticky in wet weather but dry and shiny on dry days. The gills do not reach the stem, but come close to it. The stem is white from 5 tp 15 cm long and 1 to 2 cm in diameter. The base of the stem is bulbous, up to 4 cm in diameter and is contained within a cup-like structure called the volva.

Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is the most common species of agaric in Estonia that mainly grows in birch, spruce and pine stands. Fully grown, the cap of the mushroom is 8–18 cm in diameter, bright red in colour and covered in white to yellowish removable warts. As the fungus grows, the number of warts may decrease as they may be washed away by rainfall. The gills are yellowish-white and free. The stipe is strong, yellowish-white is colour, 5–20 cm high and has a bulb at the base that bears veil remnants. The ring is wide and flaccid. The flesh is white and yellowish under the cap. Although it is poisonous, deaths resulting from the fly agaric are extremely rare. A fatal dose has been calculated as 15 caps. The name “fly agaric” is derived from the ancient use of an infusion made of the mushroom as an insecticide (when sprinkled in milk). Fly agaric is consumed as a drug due to its psychotropic effects. There is no antidote for poisoning caused by the mushroom, thus, people who have ingested a fly agaric are treated as for general poisoning.

The panther cap (Amanita pantherina) is quite common in Estonia from July to October. The panther cap always grows alone and can be found in coniferous forests, especially in sandy dune pine forests and wooded heaths. The mushroom cap is around 5-12 centimetres wide, has a hazel brown tone, is sticky with a clearly striate margin and is mostly covered with small snow-white tufts. The stipe is 5-12 cm, white in colour, up to 2 cm in width and stuffed, later hollow. The ring is always smooth on top. The gills are snow white. The flesh of the whole mushroom is white.

Tylopilus felleus is an impressive, conifer-loving mushroom, distinguished from most other boletes by its substantial and reticulate stem, its extremely bitter taste, its pink pore surface, and its brown to tan colors. It is widely distributed and common east of the Rocky Mountains wherever conifers occur naturally.

The "true" Tylopilus felleus is a European species first named from France by Bulliard in 1780. Our North American versions are probably not the same, despite appearances—with the possible exception of specimens associated with naturalized Norway spruce, which is a European tree.

Hypholoma fasciculare, commonly known as the sulphur tuft or clustered woodlover, is a common woodland mushroom, often in evidence when hardly any other mushrooms are to be found. This saprotrophic small gill fungus grows prolifically in large clumps on stumps, dead roots or rotting trunks of broadleaved trees.

The "sulphur tuft" is bitter and poisonous; consuming it can cause vomiting, diarrhea and convulsions. The principal toxin is a steroid known as fasciculol E.