| Amanita
submembranacea (Bon) Gröger "Peeling Paint Ringless Amanita"
Technical description not yet available. BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Amanita submembranacea has a cap up to 115 mm wide; it is strongly olivaceous with a pallid margin, at least at first. Marginal striations occupy less than one fourth of the pileus radius. Gills are free, not very crowded, and off-white tending to gray or brown with age; the short gills are truncate to subtruncate, plentiful, and unevenly distributed. Its stem is exannulate and has a sheathing, submembranous volva at its base. This volva rapidly becomes gray after it has been split to expose the pileus, and it often has the appearance of canvas with flakes of old paint on it. The spores measure (8.3-) 9.5 - 13.0 (-14.5) x (7.3-) 9.0 - 12,0 (-13.0) µm and are globose to subglobose (infrequently broadly ellipsoid) and inamyloid. Clamps are absent from bases of basidia. This species occurs in association with fir, birch, larch, or spruce, fruiting June through September. Amanita submembranacea was described from France and is now known from Norway to the Mediterranean. This species is most similar macroscopically to A. sinicoflava Tulloss, A. mortenii Knudsen & Borgen (a subarctic species the pileus of which turns medium brown or orangish medium brown after exposure to sun and drying or a few hours after collecting), A. groenlandica Bas ex Knudsen & Borgen, A. olivaceogrisea Kalaméés, and A. castaneogrisea Contu nom. inval. (which can be separated in the field by its rich dark brown pileus). At least some of the collections of "A. submembranacea" reported from England, Norway, and Scotland have proven to be A. castaneogrisea. Also, it interesting that a somewhat similar taxon exists in South Australia (A. punctata (Cleland & Cheel) D. A. Reed). -- R. E. Tulloss Photos: Dr. Cornelis Bas (top, Switzerland) and Dr. Gro Gulden (bottom, Norway). Return to Section Vaginatae page. Last changed 17 August
2004. |
