Amanita crocea - Orange Grisette

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

This lovely fungus is distinguished by a thick, white volva, faint zig-zag white-and-orange stem markings, and (generally) an absence of veil remnants adhering to the cap. (Unusually, the mature specimen shown here does in fact have a small fragment of the universal veil adhering to the centre of its cap.)

Amanita crocea is reported to be edible, although finding sufficient to make a meal would be difficult in most parts of Britain and Ireland.

Watermarked preview (new window) of Photolibrary image FN303f_amanita_crocea.jpg (Large file)...

Watermarked preview (new window) of Photolibrary image FN304f_amanita_crocea.jpg (Large file)...

Here is another beautiful sample with much deeper colouration:

Amanita crocea before the cap is fully expanded

Identification guide

Cap	5 - 10cm diameter; yellow-orange with an apricot tinge at the centre. Initially egg-shaped, the cap expands to become convex or even flat but usually with a small raised central area (an umbo). In older specimens the cap sometimes turns up at the edge, which is striated (with comb-like radial ridges).
Gills	Cream, crowded, free or sometimes adnexed. There are often a few short gills, of variable length and irregularly distributed.
Stem	10 - 15cm long and 1 - 1.5cm in diameter, tapering (narrower at the top); white with zig-zag patterning in a paler shade of the cap colour. There is no ring, but at the base of the stipe there is a large white sack-like volva.
Spore print	White.
Odour/taste	Sweet-smelling and with a mildly nutty sweet taste.
Habitat	Mycorhizal with hardwood trees, particularly birch and beech in clearings.
Season	July to October.
Occurrence	Infrequent.
Similar species	Amanita caesarea (Caesar's Mushroom) is rarely if ever found in northern Europe; its cap is brilliant orange with a striated margin, and the stipe is yellow. Amanita fulva has a tawny-orange cap and white gills; it has no distinctive smell or taste