Amanita crocea

[ Basidiomycota > Agaricales > Amanitaceae > Amanita . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Yet another North American species of Amanita currently going under the name of a classic European species, "Amanita crocea" on our continent parallels its European counterpart in preferring hardwoods, and in its distinguishing physical features, which include an orange, striate cap; a gorgeous, ring-less stem covered with pale orange chevrons and fibrils; and a sacklike, membranous volva that features an orange inner edge.

Thanks to Vance Stringham for documenting, collecting, and preserving Amanita crocea for study; his collection is deposited in The Herbarium of Michael Kuo.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal with hardwoods (especially oaks and birch); growing alone or scattered; summer and fall; originally described from France; widespread in Europe; widely distributed in North America as a species group, but infrequently recorded. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Michigan.

Cap: 3–8 cm; convex, expanding to planoconvex or flat; orange to dark orange, fading with age; tacky when wet; bald; the margin strongly lined for about 1 cm at maturity.

Gills: Free from the stem or slightly attached to it; close or crowded; whitish; with frequent short-gills.

Stem: 6–11 cm long; 1–1.5 cm thick; tapering slightly to apex; covered with pale orange fibrils that often become arranged into chevrons or scaly patterns; without a ring; without a swollen base; with a sacklike, whitish volva that features an orange inner surface.

Flesh: White; unchanging when sliced.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface yellow, then olive.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7–11 x 8–10 µm; subglobose or occasionally broadly ellipsoid; apiculate; smooth; inamyloid. Basidia 4-sterigmate; without basal clamp connections. Pileipellis an ixocutis of elements 2–6 µm wide. Lamellar trama bilateral; subhymenium cellular.

REFERENCES: (Quélet, 1898) Singer, 1951. (Jenkins, 1986; Phillips, 1981; Phillips, 1991/2005; Breitenbach & Kränzlin, 1995; Nonis, 2007; Buczacki et al., 2013; Gminder & Böhning, 2017; Vesterholt, 2018; Læssøe & Petersen, 2019; Tulloss, continuously updated.) Herb. Kuo 07160807, 08012101.

This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.

Spores

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2021, October). Amanita crocea. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/amanita_crocea.html