Caesar

Description

Caesar's mushroom has a large cap, 8–20 cm, smooth, bright orange to red-orange, with a distinctly striate margin. The gills and stem are yellow, the stem has a large, hanging yellow ring, and at the base a white, cup-shaped volva. The young fruiting body looks like a white egg emerging from the ground.

It grows from July to October in warm, open deciduous forests, most often under oaks and sweet chestnut. It is common in southern Europe, but exceptionally rare in Poland: only one site was known, and the species was declared extinct.

What distinguishes it from the fly agaric is the yellow, not white, colour of the gills and stem, and the absence of white patches on the cap. Remember, however, that this is an amanita, a genus that includes deadly poisonous species. If you are not absolutely certain of the species, do not pick it or eat it.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 8–20 cm; almost spherical or hemispherical when young, then convex, flat in old specimens. Surface smooth, bare, sometimes with remnants of the veil. Margin distinctly striate. Colour bright orange to red-orange, fading with age to golden yellow and pale yellow.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills free or close to the stem (narrowly adnate), crowded, pale yellow at first, later golden yellow.

Stem

Height 5–16 cm, thickness 1.5–3 cm, almost cylindrical, yellow or slightly paler than the gills, solid at first, later hollow. Ring large, yellow, hanging, often striate. Base even or slightly swollen, set in a white, cup-shaped volva in the form of large lobes (remnant of the universal veil). Young fruiting bodies are shaped like a blunt egg emerging from the ground.

Flesh

White, golden yellow only beneath the cap skin. Taste and smell indistinct. Because of the resemblance to poisonous species, the flesh should not be tasted.

Spore print and spores

Spore print white to slightly yellowish. Spores white; no data on shape and size.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Mycorrhizal fungus. Grows in warm, sunlit deciduous forests under oaks and sweet chestnut, less often under beeches; in Europe also in oak and pine forests, and in warmer climates in higher-altitude oak forests mixed with conifers.

Distribution. North Africa, southern Europe (especially northern Italy), the Balkans, Hungary, also Asia and North America. Common in southern Europe, rare in Central Europe. In Poland there is one known site (Bielinek nad Odrą, 1959); on the 2006 Red List the species has the category Ex (extinct), although its occurrence in the warmer regions of the country cannot be ruled out. It is not legally protected in Poland; it is protected in Croatia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Germany, and is listed in the Red Book of Ukraine.

Fruiting. From July (early summer) to October (mid-autumn).

What can it be confused with?

• Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) — Poisonous. Cap a darker red, with white patches of veil (falling off with age, the colour fading to yellow-orange), gills and stem white. Associated with spruce, pine or birch. Some varieties (e.g. var. guessowii) are yellow even when young.
• Amanita crocea (orange grisette) — Paler, stem scaly (covered with scales).
• Amanita phalloides (death cap) and the white amanitas (Amanita virosa and relatives) — Deadly poisonous. Cap greenish, olive or white, gills and stem white, never intensely yellow or orange. They also have a ring and a volva, so these features alone are not enough to tell them apart.
• Amanita hemibapha and other related orange species — Outside Europe there are numerous similar species (including A. jacksonii, A. arkansana and A. calyptroderma in North America and A. hemibapha in Asia); identification requires knowledge of local descriptions.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• According to tradition, a favourite of the emperor Claudius. The Romans called it bōlētus, following Galen.
• The Italian name ovolo (from Latin “little egg”) refers to the young fruiting body in its veil, resembling an egg.
• It was first described in 1772 by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli; it was first domesticated in 1984.
• It is thought to have been spread north of the Alps by the Romans, because there it most often grows along former Roman roads.