Caesar's Amanita
(Amanita caesarea)
photo by "Wildman"
This mushroom has a sticky, hemispheric red-orange to orange cap (yellowing with age) that becomes convex, then nearly flat, with a knob in the center, and radial lines along the margin; 2 to 5-1/4 inches across. The broad, yellow gills, free from the stem, are close together. The spore print is white.
The yellowish stalk is 3-8 inches long, 1/8 to 3/4 inches wide, stuffed at first, then hollow. There's a yellowish ring or skirt around the upper stalk, and a thick, loose, white, sack-like cup surrounding the base.
There are similar looking deadly amanitas, but none of them have yellow gills plus the underground sack (although other, different-looking amanitas do have the cup-of-death).
And some of my non-imperial friends have eaten this mushroom and lived to rated it among the very best.
I've never tried this mushroom myself, and strongly advise avoiding all amanitas, even one as distinct as this one. Unless you're an experienced expert, you're risking your life.
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