Amanita Lloydii

AMANITA PANTHERINA... A lot of you have been getting them from me as they are in season here and their have been a lot of questions because there really is just a serious lack of information out there  about the Amanita pantherina. Other than nearly every source and guide proclaiming them as deadly poison. There are two reasons why this is so. One is because  it is the origin of the Blessed Sacrament and Hindu Soma , among other names .  When the spiritual leaders  in the past caught on that people were using it just as a inebriant instead of treating it with reverence as the sacred gift that it is  they hid  what it truly was from the people. Thus keeping it secret and Sacred. 2 words that both come from the same thing which is sacrum. Sacrum, sacral, sexual, sacred, Secret, and secretion having to do with the Christos or Christ which is the sacred secretion or colostrum in your brain which forms mother's milk and semen, the Waters of life. I have a much larger talk I can give on that subject but that's for another time. But not unrelated. 

I should say here that there are different naming Concepts based on geographic location and genetic markers, as well as what I see as people just trying to get their names in print. The Amanita mushrooms we find here in the PNW may not, strictly speaking, be true Amanita Pantherina, microscopically identical to the European Pantherina, but for the purposes of this group, for the most part, and , specifically for this post, when I say Amanita Pantherina, I am referring to the group of mushrooms called Amanita Pantherina, Ameri-Panthera, Amanita Pantherinoides, Amanita Gematta and the Pantherina/Gematta crosses, seemingly unique to this region.  

Panther caps appear in early spring and if weather is permitting fruit through summer and fall and can go year round in this region, if conditions are favorable. 

They are not like Psilocybe shrooms in effect nor growing, being mycorrhizal,  meaning they only grow connected to the roots of certain trees. In this area the western hemlock is the main tree of choice. But also different pine and fir species as well as oak,  beech and some others.  Actually, more and more all the time,  as they,  like people,  are a very adaptive species. 

They do not grow out in the forest.  It seems that they are looking for us,  just as we are them,  because they grow,  if in the forest,  along the edges of paths,  especially at corners and junctions. , along the margins between the forest and meadows.  More often though,  they are at the edges of driveways and sidewalks, especially at the corners where the two meet. They seem to have a proclivity for churches,  cemeteries,  official government buildings and schools,  as well as hospitals. And are a really easy mushroom to hunt in neighborhoods from a moving vehicle. Even at night. 

The caps range  from dark brown with the more potent Panthers to yellowish to very pale blond or cream soda colored caps especially with the Gematta.  and although the very dark brown ones are usually very potent don't let the blonde Gematta fool you into thinking that they're weak. They are not. The cap has visible striations around the margin or edge of the cap where you can see the gills showing through. This is one of the markers of the panther, but some muscaria have this trait as well. The cap will have spots on it of course, otherwise known as Veil remnants. And no, you do not have to scrape the spots off. No part of the mushroom is a deadly poison. That is all mythology, for lack of a better word, since the word myth actually means sworn to be true, not that it's a fairytale. but all mythology as well as fairy tales and religious stories I have found and proven to all be one story. The same story, just told was a different cultural or Geographic point of view containing a deeper hidden meaning for those with the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Or in other words, it's all code. And it's about you and your brain and meditation not to mention the zodiac. Also, a story for another time.

  The spots, or Veil remnants can be white or cream-colored just like the stalk or Stipe and gills but leaning towards more white. At the point where the Stipe comes out of the Volva,  it looks like a sock slid down on an ankle. The gills are white, as are the spores. 

Contrary to the semi popular, if false opinion, Amanita pantherina is not a deadly poison. They are in the same family as the death cap and destroying Angel group. But neither the Amanita pantherina nor the Amanita muscaria contain any of the deadly amatoxins that makes this species so frightening to so many people,  Though uninformed they may be. Deadly Galerina, and some Lepiota and Conocybe mushrooms do have certain  members of their groups that do contain the deadly amatoxin, yet you don't see anyone run screaming from the name lepiota.

  There are no documented cases of death reported from either Amanita muscaria nor Amanita pantherina ingestion. there is one case on record from a few hundred years ago I believe about some Lorde or some such figure who already being in poor health and having multiple diseases eating away at him as well as being obese, did consume a ridiculously gigantic amount of Amanita muscaria, being a gluttonous individual. and he did die with the Amanita being only incidentally a partial tip over the edge to his already one foot in the grave state. The only documented reports of death involving Amanita pantherina are from cases of elderly and feeble dementia patients who wandered away from nursing homes and died of exposure in the woods after incidentally consuming some Amanita pantherina. there are also multiple reports in various newspapers, Sensational as they may be, of this or that farmer or mushroom hunter who discovered a large patch of Amanita pantherina and thinking that they were Amanita rubescens, or Amanita Novinupta, the blusher,  that looks much like the panther to the uninformed eye. in these cases, after consuming large quantities comparatively to the recommended dosage of the Amanita pantherina, and filled with Terror because of the unexpected effects of said Amanita, these individuals invariably head to the hospital emergency room thinking they're about to die, where doctors, who are usually misinformed about Amanita as well, mistakenly tell them things about being in a coma when the mushroom put them to sleep state that they are unable to be woken from until the required period of time passes while the Amanita teaches them things. usually from 4 to 15 hours. after which everyone wakes no worse for wear. sometimes feeling fantastic, other times with a slight hangover depending on the amount ingested. sometimes the individual may be awake and alert inside they're seemingly dead to the world body for part of the time. To avoid this it is important to be careful of your dosage and to not redose within the first 3 hours of ingestion.