| Amanitopsis albopulverulenta Beeli "White Flower Amanita" :: Technical description (t.b.d.) BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The following description is based on Beeli (1935). The cap of Amanitopisis albopulverulenta is 40 - 50 mm wide, plano-convex, depressed in the center, umbonate, with a long-striate margin. The white cap is covered with small, pale brownish-gray, flocculent remains of the volva. The flesh is thin, firm, and white. Gills are free, close, white, thin, fragile, pointed at both ends, 5 - 6 mm broad, with an uneven margin. The short gills are nine times more plentiful than normal gills. Its stem is 70 - 90 × 5 - 8 mm, stuffed, cylindric, fibrillose, smooth, and white. The ring is absent. The bulb is very small. The volva is present as flocculose layer on top of the bulb and whitish. This species lacks an odor. Its taste is reportedly sweet with an acrid aftertaste. According to the protologue, the spores measure 4 - 5 × 2.5 µm and are elongate to cylindric and inamyloid. No information is available concerning basidial clamps. Unfortunately, the present species was not treated by Gilbert; and we have no information to compare with Beeli's information on spore size. As noted elsewhere in these pages, Beeli had a tendency to understate the size of small spores. The present species was originally described from the Republic of Congo where a single specimen was found in dry forest. If this species is indeed an Amanita (as seems likely), it appears to be most similar to the group of taxa associated with A. farinosa Schwein. This species is very poorly known. Based on its similarity to A. farinosa, A. albopulverulenta probably lacks clamps at the bases of its basidia. -- R. E. Tulloss Return to Section Amanita page. Last changed 24 February 2007. |