The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise / Its Habitat and its Time of Growth

by Miron Elisha Hard

In very young plants the edge of the collar is attached to the margin of the cap and conceals the gills, but with the upward growth of the stem and the expansion of the cap the collar separates from the margin and remains attached to the stem, where it hangs down upon it like a ruffle.

The expanded cap is usually from three to six inches broad, the stem from four to six inches long and tapering upward.

When in the button stage, the plant is ovate; and the white color of the volva, which now entirely surrounds the plant, presents an appearance much like a hen's egg in size, color, and shape. As the parts within develop, the volva ruptures in its upper part, the stem elongates and carries upward the cap, while the remains of the volva surrounds the base of the stem in the form of a cup.

When the volva first breaks at the apex, it reveals the point of the cap with its beautiful red color and in contrast with the white volva makes quite a pretty plant, but with advancing age the red or orange red fades to a yellow. In drying the specimens the red often entirely disappears. In young, as well as in old plants, the margin is often prominently marked with striations, as will be seen in Figures 28 and 29. The flesh of the plant is white but more or less stained with yellow next to the epidermis and the gills, which are of that color.

The plant grows in wet weather from July to October. It grows in thin woods and seems to prefer pine woods and sandy soil. I have found it from the south tier of counties to the north of our state. It is not, however, a common plant in Ohio.

From its several names—Cæsar's Agaric, Imperial Mushroom, Cibus Deorum, Kaiserling—one would infer that for ages it had been held in high esteem as an esculent.

Too great caution cannot be used in distinguishing it from the very poisonous fly mushroom.

Amanita spreta. Pk.

Hated Amanita. Poisonous.

Spreta, hated. The pileus at first is nearly ovate, slightly umbonate, then convex, smooth, sometimes fragments of the volva adhering, the margin striate, whitish or pale-brown toward and on the umbo, soft, dry, more or less furrowed on the margin.