is this amanita caesarea, please?

Lemars · #1 (**permalink**) 14-08-2011, 03:19 PM

Would anyone be able to confirm this fungus for me please?

I was out walking (in France - if I'm right, I know they don't spring up in the UK) this morning and thought I'd found a freshly picked and discarded tomato at the side of the track in deciduous mixed woodland.

When the tomato didn't budge, I cleared away a mound of dead leaves and saw the stem - then I was reminded of the `coin stuck to the pavement' joke. Anyway, why would anyone throw away a perfectly good tomato (appeared fresh-picked) in the middle of absolutely nowhere ?

I was beginning to think I wasn't going to be able to identify it on my own, but think it might be an emerging Amanita Caesarea - could someone confirm, based on only one photo, please ?

fairplay · #2 (**permalink**) 14-08-2011, 04:49 PM

It ticks all the right boxes - lucky you !

Neil.

Chris Yeates · #3 (**permalink**) 14-08-2011, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lemars

. . . .
I was beginning to think I wasn't going to be able to identify it on my own, but think it might be an emerging Amanita Caesarea - could someone confirm, based on only one photo, please ?

yes, indeed
was this by any chance anywhere near one of the ancient Roman roads? - there are theories that the Romans deliberately spread it; it was said that in those days it was safer to send a messenger with gold than with 'boleti' which is what they (confusingly to modern eyes - it's all based on later misinterpretations of Pliny, I think) called this species

Chris

fairplay · #4 (**permalink**) 14-08-2011, 08:57 PM

So presumably Chris, the Romans tried to see if it would grow in Britain ?

No doubt others have tried many times.

Neil.

Lemars · #5 (**permalink**) 15-08-2011, 06:17 AM

Thank you Fairplay and Chris - and you're absolutely right, it's within 50 yards of a Roman Road. How very wonderful to have the sort of knowledge which allows to you guess where I was !!

I'm going back there this morning - to see if it's grown at all. Maybe there will be another photo worth taking, but it's still raining quite hard.

C

fairplay · #6 (**permalink**) 15-08-2011, 06:34 AM

Any chance of bringing it back to England and 'losing' it in Suffolk ? (next to a Roman road of course)

Neil.

Lemars · #7 (**permalink**) 17-08-2011, 09:17 AM

Consider it done, Neil !!

Well, I went back the following day and took a photo of the one I'd seen previously - now in all its glory, but also having lost that fresh-picked-tomato look.

It was in good company though because there was another mushroom poking it's head up next door.

A little while later - there was another (and I saw evidence of a couple more which had been cut off in their prime by other foragers). It's clearly an excellent spot of fungi or allsorts.
My foraging friend and I wondered if we were at the site of a settlement. It's certainly very near (within a hundred yards or so of where the old road would have been, but the abundance of mushrooms (of all sorts) just at that site might suggest more than road-side scattering ?

I could post others from the same days foraging, but it would take ages because of the size of the photos (memo to me: must get instruction book out for camera and see if I can take smaller photos - it would save a lot of `cropping-to-size').

There were at least 5 boletes with 22 - 23cm caps and I've not identified those yet !!!
C