Amanita parcivolvata

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by Michael Kuo

This beautiful Amanita features a red cap, yellow gills, a dusty yellow stem that lacks a ring, and an indistinct volva that leaves loose fragments on the base of the stem and scattered warts on the cap surface. It is an eastern and southeastern, oak-loving species that is frequently found in grassy, disturbed-ground areas like picnic areas, lawns, ditches, roadbanks, and so on--though it appears in woods as well.

Because of its red color Amanita parcivolvata is often mistaken for the infamous Amanita muscaria, but that species is usually stockier and features more prominent warts, a ring, and a distinctive stem base encircled by concentric zones of shagginess (additionally, in most areas where Amanita parcivolvata occurs, the common variety of Amanita muscaria is var. formosa, which is yellow).

No amanita should be considered for the table!

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with oaks, and often reported under pines in "mixed woods"; growing alone or gregariously; common in grassy, disturbed-ground settings but also found in woods; spring through fall; documented in North America from New Jersey to Florida and Texas; probably to be expected in Mexico. I have found it in Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Cap: 3-12 cm; convex to broadly convex, flat, or shallowly depressed; sticky when fresh; smooth underneath scattered yellowish dust, warts or patches; red to orange-red, fading fairly quickly from the margin inward; the margin lined, at least by maturity.

Gills: Free from the stem or nearly so; crowded; creamy to pale yellow; dusted.

Stem: 3-12 cm long; up to about 1.5 cm thick; tapering slightly to the apex; pale yellow; dusted; base with with powdery, indistinct, yellow volval remnants (often left on surrounding soil when the mushroom is picked).

Flesh: Pale yellow; unchanging.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: White.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface quickly erasing red to orangish yellow.

Microscopic Features: Spores 9.5-14 x 6-8 µ; smooth; elliptical to nearly cylindric; inamyloid. Basidia 4-spored; rarely with basal clamps.

REFERENCES: (Peck, 1900) J. E. Gilbert, 1941. (Saccardo, 1902; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1979; Jenkins, 1986; Lincoff, 1992; Roody, 2003; Tulloss, 2005.) Herb. Kuo 07110706.

Further Online Information:

Amanita parcivolvata at Tulloss's Studies in Amanita

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2008, March). Amanita parcivolvata. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/amanita_parcivolvata.html