In the summer these beautiful mushrooms pop up in our front yard. They are the “American Caesar’s Mushroom” Amanita jacksonii and are very close relatives of the European Caesar’s mushroom Amanita caesarea .
(click to enlarge)
This unusual mushroom looks like it hatched from an egg.
The genus Amanita is well known for its poisonous species such as Amanita muscaria (the fly agaric mushroom) but the Caesar mushroom and its relatives are edible.
I find the taste quite mild but not interesting enough to eat often. (Please don’t eat any wild mushroom unless you are absolutely certain it is edible.)
Amanita jacksonii is mycorrhizal with oak and pine trees and covers the fine tree roots with mycelium (mushroom tissue). The tree supplies sugars to the mushroom and the mushroom provides minerals to the tree root so they both benefit from the relationship.
I will post more mushroom images in the near future
Thanks for visiting,
Jim