Edible
American Caesar's Mushroom
Amanita jacksonii
Caesar's mushrooms are larger, with a red to orange cap with a strongly lined edge, yellow gills and a thick white sac-like cup at the base.
Yellow Patches
Amanita flavoconia
Toxic
Also called yellow wart, yellow-dust amanita.
Yellow patches is a small, bright yellow to orange amanita of eastern forests, named for the loose yellow powdery warts on its cap. It is one of the most common amanitas in eastern North America in summer. Field guides list it as poisonous.
The tell
Small bright yellow to orange cap with loose yellow powdery patches, white gills, a yellow ring, and yellow powder left in the soil at the base.
Field marks
What to look at
Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.
- Cap
- Convex to flat, bright yellow to orange-yellow, sometimes orange at the center. Covered in soft yellow powdery patches that rub or wash off easily. The edge is smooth or only faintly lined.
- Underside
- Gills white to pale cream, crowded and free or narrowly attached.
- Stem
- Whitish to pale yellow, with a yellow, skirt-like ring near the top. The base is a small bulb dusted with yellow powdery veil remnants that often stay behind in the soil.
- Flesh
- White, not changing when cut.
- Spore print
- White.
- Size
- Cap 1 to 3 inches wide (2.5 to 7.5 cm); stem 2 to 4 inches tall (5 to 10 cm).
Where and when
Where and when it grows
- Habitat
- Hardwood and mixed forests, often with hemlock, oak, birch and pine.
- Grows on
- Soil, mycorrhizal with the roots of living trees.
- Season
- Summer through early fall.
- Range
- Eastern North America, east of the Great Plains, most common in the Northeast and Appalachians.
Lookalikes
What the yellow patches gets confused with
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
ToxicFly Agaric
Amanita muscaria
Eastern fly agarics can be yellow to orange too, but they are larger, with whitish to pale yellow cottony warts and concentric rings of scales above the bulb.
Frost's amanita
Amanita frostiana is similar in size and color but has a distinctly lined cap edge and a small bulb with a collar-like rim.
Edibility
What the field guides say
Toxic
Field guides list yellow patches as poisonous or as a species to be treated as poisonous. Its toxins have not been well studied. It is a member of a genus that includes the deadliest mushrooms in North America.
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
Questions about the yellow patches
Is Amanita flavoconia poisonous?
Field guides list it as poisonous. Its chemistry has not been well studied, so the toxins involved are not established.
What does yellow patches look like?
It is a small amanita with a bright yellow to orange cap covered in loose yellow powdery patches, white gills, a yellow ring and a small bulb at the base. The yellow powder often stays in the soil when the mushroom is lifted.
Where does yellow patches grow?
In hardwood and mixed forests of eastern North America, often with hemlock, oak and birch. It is one of the most common amanitas there in summer.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Amanita flavoconia
MushroomExpert.com
- Yellow Patches
Missouri Department of Conservation
- Amanita flavoconia
Index Fungorum
Also on Mushrooms.id
Related species
Toxic raw
Blusher
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.
Deadly
Death Cap
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.
Deadly
Destroying Angel
Amanita bisporigera
Pure white all over, with white gills, a skirt-like ring, and a white sac-like cup around a bulb at the base.
Toxic
Panther Cap
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.
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