Jackson's slender Caesar

What it is

Jackson's slender Caesar is the English name the catalogue gives to Amanita jacksonii, a wild fungus that forms ectomycorrhizal relationships with trees in forest. The IUCN Red List lists its common names as Jackson's slender Caesar, American Caesar's mushroom and slender Caesar.

The species is recorded across a wide range. The IUCN entry lists the eastern United States, Canada, southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Colombia, and the Netherlands.

Food use in Guatemala and Mexico

A Kaqchikel ethnomycology study from San Juan Sacatepequez, in the Guatemalan Highlands, documents a market where fresh fruit bodies of this species were sold as Hongo de San Pedro alongside other edible species. The same study says that knowledge of the ethnomycological practices of the Mayan peoples of Guatemala is still rudimentary compared with Mexico.

A Guatemalan newspaper describes the mushroom under the name hongo de San Pedro and calls it edible. The catalogue records a food use in which the mushroom is marketed and then grilled or cooked with tomato and onion. The sources checked for this page do not give a recipe or quantities.

The IUCN entry lists the species as edible for humans throughout its range. That is a conservation database's statement and does not replace a food-safety assessment.

Safety and identification

Amanita includes deadly species, and mycologists advise caution with the genus because misidentification can be lethal. The catalogue states that edible identification must not be inferred from appearance or from the common name.

Catalogue inclusion is not an edibility verdict. Nothing on this page is an identification guide, a preparation method or a statement that the species is safe to eat.