Amanita jacksonii
Also called Caesar's mushroom, American caesar.
The American Caesar's mushroom is a bright red to orange amanita with yellow gills and stem that rises from a white egg. It grows under oaks and pines in eastern North America in summer. It is one of the few amanitas field guides list as edible.
The tell
Bright red to orange cap with a lined edge, yellow gills, a yellow stem and ring, and a thick white sac-like cup at the base.
Field marks
Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.
Where and when
Lookalikes
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
Amanita bisporigera
Before it opens, a Caesar's mushroom is a white egg like those of the deadly destroying angel and death cap. Cut top to bottom, a Caesar's egg shows an orange cap and yellow gills inside; the deadly species show white gills and a white, greenish or tan cap.
Amanita muscaria
The fly agaric has white gills, white warts on the cap and rings of scales above a bulb at the base instead of a large white sac.
Amanita flavoconia
Yellow patches is smaller, with yellow powdery warts on the cap, white gills and a small bulb instead of a white sac.
More side-by-side comparisons
Edibility
Field guides list the American Caesar's mushroom as edible. The same guides stress that it belongs to Amanita, the genus with the deadliest mushrooms in North America, and that its unopened white eggs look like those of the death cap and destroying angel, which contain amatoxins. The yellow gills, yellow stem and orange cap separate mature specimens.
This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.
FAQ
Field guides list it as edible. It is an amanita, the same genus as the death cap and destroying angel, and its white egg stage looks like theirs.
It has a bright red to orange cap with a lined edge, yellow gills, a yellow stem with a yellow ring, and a thick white cup around the base. Young ones emerge from a white egg-like sac.
Under oaks and pines in eastern North America, from southeastern Canada to Mexico. It fruits in summer and early fall, often after heavy rain.
Sources
MushroomExpert.com
Index Fungorum
Also on Mushrooms.id
Amanita phalloides
Greenish to yellow-olive cap, white gills, a skirt-like ring, and a white sac-like cup around the base of the stem.
Amanita rubescens
Dull reddish brown cap with grayish to pinkish warts, and flesh that slowly turns pinkish red where it is cut, bruised or eaten by insects.
Amanita pantherina
Brown cap with neat white warts and a lined edge, white gills, a ring, and a bulb with a rolled collar at the top.
Amanita smithiana
Photo coming
Amanita smithiana
Large white amanita with soft, cottony patches on the cap, a ragged ring, and a shaggy, tapering root-like base, under Pacific Northwest conifers.
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