Caesar's mushroom or Orange grisette

The cap is 8–20 cm, hemispherical when young, then opening out to plano-convex. It's bright orange-red, darker in the centre and paler toward the edges. The surface is smooth and shiny, with no veil flakes (unlike the fly agaric), and the skin peels easily. The margin has clear radial striations, very pronounced in mature caps.

The cap is 5 to 12 cm across, egg-shaped as it breaks out of the sac, then bell-shaped and convex, finally flat with a low, darker central bump.

It's yellow-orange to orange-brown with an apricot tinge in the centre, paler towards the edge. The surface is smooth and shiny, slightly sticky when wet, and almost never carries patches of veil. The edge is grooved like a comb.

The gills are free, crowded and golden yellow, one of the key features of the species (most amanitas have white gills). Spore print white or pale cream.

The gills are free, crowded, white to cream, with shorter gills of varying length in between.

The spore print is white.

The stem is 8–15 cm tall and 1–2.5 cm thick, cylindrical, widening slightly toward the base. It's bright yellow, smooth or finely scaly. Near the top hangs a broad, membranous yellow ring that droops like a skirt, and at the base is a large, white, free, sack-shaped volva, an essential diagnostic feature.

The stem is 10 to 15 cm tall, up to 20 cm, and 1 to 2 cm thick, tapering upwards, hollow and brittle with age, pale to deep orange with a white-and-orange zig-zag pattern of soft scales, like snakeskin. There's no ring and no bulb.

At the base is a large, thick, loose white sac (volva), often lobed and hidden in the soil.

The flesh is white or slightly yellowish under the cap skin, firm, and doesn't change colour when cut. In the stem it's fibrous and solid, with no hollows.

The flesh is thin, white, soft and fragile, and doesn't change colour when cut.

The smell is pleasant, mushroomy and faintly sweet. The taste is mild and nutty, which is exactly why the mushroom is so prized.

The smell is faint: some sources call it sweet and mushroomy, others indistinct.