Saffron float (Amanita crocea)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Amanitaceae (Amanitaceae)
- Genus: Amanita (Amanita)
- Subgenus: Amanitopsis (Float)
- Species: Amanita crocea (Saffron float)
Synonyms:
Saffron float
Saffron pusher
Amanitopsis crocea
The saffron float (Latin Amanita crocea ) is a mushroom from the genus Amanita of the Amanitaceae family.
Hat:
Diameter 5-10 cm, at first ovoid, becomes more and more spread with age. The surface of the cap is smooth, shiny in wet weather, the edges are usually "ribbed" due to protruding plates (this is not always noticeable in young mushrooms). The color varies from saffron yellow to orange-yellow, in the central part the cap is darker than at the edges. The flesh of the cap is whitish or yellowish, without any special taste or smell, thin and brittle.
Plates:
Loose, frequent, white in youth, with age acquire a creamy or yellowish tint.
Spore powder:
White.
Leg:
Height 7-15 cm, thickness 1-1.5 cm, whitish or yellowish, hollow, thickened at the base, often with a bend in the middle part, growing from a pronounced volva (which, however, can be hidden underground), without a ring ... The surface of the leg is covered with a kind of scaly bands.
Spread:
The saffron float is found from the beginning of July to the end of September in deciduous and mixed forests, preferring bright places, edges, light forests. It often grows near swamps. There seems to be no apparent peak of fruiting.
Similar species:
The saffron float can be easily confused with the Caesar mushroom.
Two related species, Amanita vaginata and Amanita fulva, grow under similar conditions. It is difficult to formalize the differences between them: the color of the cap is very changeable in everyone, the habitats are quite similar. It is believed that A. vaginata is larger and fatter, while A. fulva often has a peculiar tubercle on the cap, but these signs are not the most reliable. A simple chemical study can provide one hundred percent certainty. The saffron float mushroom in adulthood looks very much like a pale toadstool, but unlike this poisonous mushroom, it does not have a ring on its leg.
Edibility:
Saffron float - Low-value edible mushroom: thin fleshy, easily crumbled, tasteless. (The rest of the floats, however, are even worse.) Some sources indicate that pre-heat treatment is necessary.
Notes:
Collecting floats is, in my opinion, a symbol of complete hopelessness. The pigs are collected from absent-mindedness. Mokruhi - from a bad mood. Valuey - to seem original. Egg-stage merrymakers - in protest. And floats - when there is absolutely nothing left in life.
However, the float is a gift for the classifier. Several types of mushrooms, on the one hand very similar, and on the other - clearly different. White, gray, saffron, yellow-brown ... It looks like the lineup of a reputable manufacturer. The inner essence is about the same, and the design can be chosen to your liking. It is not clear, however, why.