Amanita caesarea

    Caesar's mushroom is never a frequent species in our area. It comes and goes in two to three weeks, usually at the height of the rainy season. Then too, it doesn't necessarily fruit every year. Certainly, one of the most spectacular of mushrooms. It is especially vivid as it emerges from its universal veil. The cap is bright scarlet and the gills and stipe a rich golden yellow. The flesh colored universal veil sometimes adheres to the cap for a prolonged period diminishing the otherwise glorious color. The scarlet pigment is both water soluble and light sensitive so that the cap often fades to a dull peach color or even tan.
    Mushroom aficionados are always eager to "try" this species as it is known to be edible. Reports, however, from a fairly large sampling (my classes) are uniformly uninspiring as to its culinary qualities. Perhaps this is one of those mushrooms best left in the forest to perpetuate its kind and to confer all sorts of benefits to its host tree, the ponderosa pine.
    There has been much discussion of various forms of Amanita caesarea in the literature. One particular variant in the Southwest seems very close to the European concept of Amanita caesarea and probably will continue to be considered that species. Amanita caesarea is a species of the ponderosa pine forest. It is apparently more frequent in the south and west of New Mexico and into Arizona, less so in the north central and western parts of the state. It occurs in very open forest with little or no understory and amongst pine needles or even bare ground.

Bill Isaacs
1996-12-27