Caesar mushroom (Amanita caesarea)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Amanitaceae (Amanitaceae)
- Genus: Amanita (Amanita)
- Species: Amanita caesarea (Caesar mushroom (Amanita Caesar))
Other names:
Caesarean mushroom
Caesarean mushroom
Amanita Caesar
Description:
The cap is 6-20 cm in diameter, ovoid, hemispherical, then convex-outstretched, orange or fiery red, yellowing with age or wilting, naked, less often with large white remnants of a common veil, with a ribbed edge.
The plates are loose, frequent, convex, orange-yellow.
Spores: 8-14 by 6-11 microns, more or less oblong, smooth, colorless, non-amyloid. Spore white or yellowish powder.
The leg is strong, fleshy, 5-19 by 1.5-2.5 cm, clavate or cylindrically-clavate, from light yellow to golden, in the upper part with a wide hanging ribbed yellow ring, near the base with a saccular free or semi-free white Volvo. The peeping Volvo has an uneven blade edge and looks like an egg shell.
The pulp is dense, strong, white, yellow-orange in the peripheral layer, with a slight hazelnut scent and a pleasant taste.
Spread:
Occurs from June to October in old light forests, copses, forest growths, on the border of deciduous forests and meadows. Traditionally grows under chestnuts and oaks, less often - in the neighborhood of beech, birch, hazel or coniferous trees on acidic or decalcified soils, sporadically, singly.
A species with a disjunctive range. Found in Eurasia, America, Africa. Among the countries of Western Europe, it is distributed in Italy, Spain, France, Germany. On the territory of the CIS, it is found in the Caucasus, Crimea and the Carpathians. Listed in the Red Book of Germany and Ukraine.
Similarity:
It can be confused with the red fly agaric (Amanita muscaria (L.) Hook.), When the flakes from the cap of the latter are washed away by the rain, and especially with its variety Amanita aureola Kalchbr., With an orange cap, almost devoid of white flakes and with a filmy volva. However, in this group the plates, ring and stem are white, in contrast to the Caesar mushroom, whose plates and ring on the stem are yellow, and only the volva is white.
It is also similar to the Saffron Float, but it has a whiter leg and plates.
Rating:
Exceptionally tasty edible mushroom (1st category), extremely appreciated since ancient times. Used boiled, fried, dried, pickled.
Note:
Etymology: Amanita is a mushroom from Mount Amanos (Aman) in the ancient Roman province of Cilicia (Cilicia, southeast of Asia Minor, the territory of modern Turkey). Caesarea - Caesar + suffix -eus. Caesar, worthy of a Caesar (Caesar).