Amanita fulva - Tawny Grisette Amanita fulva - Tawny Grisette

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

Family: Amanitaceae

Although Amanita fulva, commonly referred to as the Tawny Grisette, is not poisonous but it must be well cooked before it may safely be eaten. Amanitas are so stately that it seems a shame to collect them. (I look for fallen specimens where ever possible when I want to photograph volvas or other features that cannot be seen easily on standing fruitbodies.) Pale-capped Amanita fungi can be confused with Deathcaps; occasional a Tawny Grisette will have avery pale-brown, almost light ochre cap.

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Watermarked preview (new window) of Photolibrary image FN306f_amanita_fulva.jpg (Large file)...

Identification guide

Cap

5 - 8cm diameter; tawny orange with a paler area around the edge of the cap. Initially egg-shaped, the cap expands to become flat but with a  small raised central area (an umbo). The edge of the cap is striated (with comb-like radial ridges).

Gills

White, free and crowded, of variable length; som start at the margin, others near the stipe and sometimes a few start well away from the margin and terminate well before reaching the stipe..

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

Not distinctive.

Habitat

Mycorhizal with hardwood and softwood trees; commonly found beside woodland paths.

Season

July to October.

Occurrence

Frequent.

Similar species

Amanita caesarea (Caesar's Mushroom) is rarely if ever found in southern Europe; its cap is brilliant orange with a striated margin, and the stipe is orange-yellow.

Amanita crocea has a yellowish-orange cap with an apricot tinge at the centre. It has cream rather than white gills and a more brittle stipe that is often hollow in mature fruit bodies, and it has a sweet smell and a nutty taste.