Fly Agaric vs American Caesar’s Mushroom
Amanita muscaria and Amanita jacksonii are confused for one another often enough to be worth putting next to each other.
The storybook red-and-white mushroom. Rarely fatal, but ibotenic acid and muscimol cause delirium, nausea and seizures.
A scarlet cap rising out of a white egg, and one of the few Amanita anyone eats deliberately — in the same genus, and often the same woods, as the ones that kill.
Side by side
| Amanita muscaria | Amanita jacksonii | |
|---|---|---|
| In this game | Poisonous | Edible |
| Habitat | Under birch, pine and spruce, almost anywhere they grow. | Not recorded yet |
| Season | Late summer to early winter. | Not recorded yet |
| Spore print | White. | Not recorded yet |
This comparison cannot make a mushroom safe to eat. It sets out the few characteristics this game records, in general terms, for two species that vary by region, age and growing conditions. Real specimens overlap in ways no table and no photograph can separate, and the deadly one here is deadly in a single meal. Ask a qualified local expert, every time.
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Amanita muscaria is also confused with Gemmed Amanita and Panther Cap.
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