Fly Agaric

Amanita muscaria is the default mushroom of the storybook: the toadstool under the gnome, the power-up in the video game, the red cap with white spots every illustrator reaches for. It is also poisonous, though rarely fatal, and mildly psychoactive. It became the face of mushrooms while spending centuries as shorthand for “don’t touch that” — a successful marketing campaign for a look-but-don’t-eat policy.