Amanita pantherina

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by Michael Kuo

Amanita pantherina is an impressive species with a brownish or yellowish brown cap that is covered with white warts. Though the "true" Amanita pantherina is probably a strictly European species, several North American versions are commonly found. I have opted to treat the whitish Amanita multisquamosa and the yellow Amanita velatipes (see the right-hand column) as distinct, leaving the brownish versions to go under the name "Amanita pantherina" while we wait for North American names to be published. If this sort of "lumping" bothers you, see Rod Tulloss's keys to northeastern and Pacific Northwest amanitas, where you will find various pantherina cluster taxa separated, primarily on microscopic features.

Other than the brownish cap with white warts, distinguishing features of Amanita pantherina include the collar-like roll of volval tissue at the top of the basal bulb, and the elliptical, inamyloid spores.

Amanita pantherina is very poisonous. It appears to contains the same toxins that are present in Amanita muscaria, but in higher and potentially fatal concentrations.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with conifers and hardwoods; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall (winter in California); western North America and possibly elsewhere (but, if so, rare).

Cap: 3-18 cm, convex, becoming broadly convex or flat; sticky or dry; brown to tan or yellowish brown; with white warts; the margin sometimes somewhat lined at maturity.

Gills: Free from the stem by maturity; white; crowded.

Stem: 4-20 cm long; up to 2.5 cm thick; tapering to apex and ending in a swollen basal bulb; somewhat scaly or fairly smooth; whitish; with a whitish ring above, and a roll of tissue from the volva forming the upper margin of the bulb--or, occasionally, with concentric rings of volval material.

Flesh: White; not discoloring on exposure.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 8-14 x 6-10 µ; smooth; elliptical; inamyloid.

REFERENCES: Gonnermann & Rabenhorst; (Fries) Krombholtz, 1836. (Saccardo, 1887; Smith, 1949; Smith, 1975; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Thiers, 1982; Arora, 1986; Jenkins, 1986; States, 1990; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992; Roody, 2003; Tulloss, 2003a; Tulloss, 2003b; Miller & Miller, 2006.) Herb. Kuo 01170504.

Further Online Information:

Amanita pantherina at Tulloss's Studies in Amanita
Amanita velatipes at Tulloss's Studies in Amanita
Amanita pantherina at MykoWeb
Amanita pantherina at Roger's Mushrooms
Amanita pantherina var. pantherinoides at Roger's Mushrooms
Amanita pantherina var. velatipes at Roger's Mushrooms
Amanita pantherina at Fungi of Poland

Differs from Amanita pantherina as follows:

Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2005, March). Amanita pantherina. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/amanita_pantherina.html