Orange grisetteAmanita crocea

The orange grisette (Amanita crocea) is an orange member of the amanita genus, one of the grisettes: it has no ring on the stem, the cap edge is grooved, and the stem base sits in a large white sac (volva). Its name crocea comes from the Latin crocus, saffron. It's beautiful and eye-catching, but it's an amanita, and the real danger is that deadly relatives grow alongside it. Any mushroom with a sac at the base needs special care.

How do you identify an orange grisette? The cap is 5 to 12 cm across, egg-shaped when it first breaks out of the sac, then bell-shaped and convex, finally flat with a low bump that's darker than the rest. 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 white to cream. The spore print is white. 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 and covered in a white-and-orange zig-zag pattern of soft scales, like snakeskin. There's no ring. At the base is a large, thick, loose white sac, often lobed and hidden in soil or leaf litter, so always dig the whole mushroom up rather than cutting it.

Where does it grow? It partners mostly birch, also beech and occasionally conifers, in mossy clearings and along the edges of broadleaved and mixed woods on acid soil. It grows singly or in small groups from summer to mid-autumn, most often in late summer and early autumn.

Is the orange grisette edible? Some books list it, like other grisettes, as edible only after thorough cooking, since grisettes are poisonous raw (Norway's list for mushroom inspectors asks for at least 15 minutes of cooking). First Nature advises not to gather it at all, because it's so easy to confuse with deadly amanitas. We agree: no mushroom with a sac at the base goes in the basket, however much it looks like a grisette.

What can you mistake it for? The most dangerous mix-up is the death cap. It also has a large white sac, free white gills, a white spore print and zig-zag markings on the stem, and its cap can be yellowish or olive. But its cap edge is smooth, without grooves, it has a ring on the stem, and its stem is whitish, not orange, with a swollen bulb inside the sac. The ring can fall off, so 'no ring' on its own proves nothing. The destroying angel grows under the same birches, but it's white all over, with a smooth edge and a ring. Very pale orange grisettes also occur, so never assume a whitish ringless amanita with a sac is a grisette. Both usually cause first symptoms 6 to 12 hours after eating, sometimes sooner or later, often followed by a deceptive improvement while the liver is being destroyed. The panther cap also has a grooved edge, but its brown cap is dotted with white patches, it has a ring, and its poisoning starts within one to three hours. Rain can wash the patches off, so check the stem too: it's white with no snakeskin pattern, and the volva forms rolled rims on a bulb rather than a loose sac. The fly agaric has a ring, a white stem and warts that rain can wash off. The false death cap has veil patches on the cap, a ring and a round bulb at the base. The tawny grisette is the closest lookalike, also under birch, but its cap is tawny brown and its stem is plain, without the snakeskin pattern. The grisette has a grey cap. Caesar's mushroom has yellow gills, a yellow stem and a large ring. If someone may have eaten a mushroom that could be an amanita, get help straight away, even if they feel fine: call emergency services on 112 (999 in the UK) or your local poison centre and keep any leftovers, including the base.