James T's pretty mushrooms:
It looked to me to be American Caesar's Mushroom, Amanita caesarea, at first
glance, because of the lack of patches on the cap. More information is
needed to confirm this ID. False Caesar's Mushroom, Amanita parcivolvata
looks very similar.
Bill Y. writes:
This is a mushroom we find in Connecticut and you are right that it's a Caesarea
like mushroom and we joke about it every time we find it. We call it Amanita #
19 because Rod Tulloss has been working on species descriptions for this
bewildering group of closely related Amanita caesarea like mushrooms and until
he publishes them he gives them numbers like # 19. What we used to call
Amanita caesarea we now call Amanita jacksonii, which is the
common red American Caesars' Mushroom. The yellow/orange form is different
and there's a good picture and description of it (see remarks under comments
there) on page 17 of Roger Phillips "Mushrooms of North America: I'd say until
Rod or someone publishes a description of this beautiful Amanita we might as
well call it Amanita jacksonii or if you prefer A. caesarea, but I warn you that the hard
core name people think caesarea only grows in Europe.
Bill Yule


