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[ Section Phalloideae page. ] [ Amanita Studies home. ] [ Keys & Checklist/Picturebooks ] Amanita griseoturcosa T. Oda, C. Tanaka & Tsuda"Turquoise Death Cap"
Technical description (t.b.d.) BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The cap of Amanita griseoturcosa is 40 - 60 mm wide, hemispherical at first, then convex to plane, grayish-turquoise or turquoise gray to dark turquoise, smooth, often appearing finely innately fibrillose, with a nonstriate and nonappendiculate margin. The flesh is white and 2 - 3 mm thick over the stem. The gills are free, 3 - 4 mm broad, white, and crowded. The short gills are truncate to subtruncate in at least one to three series. The stem is 50 - 80 × 4 - 7 mm, cylindrical or slightly tapering upward, white, smooth to slightly scaly, stuffed to slightly hollow. The bulb is fusiform, 7 - 13 mm wide. The ring is apical or in the upper part of the stem, white, skirt-like, persistent, membranous, and striate on the upper surface. The limbate volva is membranous, often adherent to the stem, and the highest point on the stem is 20 mm. This species is know from the prefectures Tokyo, Chiba, and Miyagi (Japan) and is associated with fir, pine, oak, beech, and chestnut. It is only known from Japan. The group of species to which Amanita griseoturcosa should be compared are those members of section Phalloideae with a pigmented virgate cap and having spores, on average, with a length one and a half times the width or longer. The only species falling in this group is Amanita pseudoporphyria Hongo which has been recently revised by Yang (1997). The present species differs from A. pseudoporphyria by having blue tints in the cap color, a markedly smaller fruiting body, and larger and proportionately more narrow spores. An undescribed species from eastern North America known from the central Appalachian mountains is also black to gray with a bluish tint. The original collection sent to RET was described as "midnight blue," but to RET the mature material seems gray and virgate without blue tine. This species is clearly distinct although possibly related to A. griseoturcosa but having spores that are longer and proportionately narrower. --R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel [ Section Phalloideae page. ] [ Amanita Studies home. ] [ Keys & Checklist/Picturebooks ] Last change 5 August 2008. |