| Amanita thejoleuca Pat. "Decary's Death Cap"
Technical Description. (t.b.d.) BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The following description is based on Gilbert (1941) and the notes with the type collection. The cap of Amanita thejoleuca is 60 - 80 mm wide, fleshy, pale brownish yellow, with color more saturated over the center, sometimes with a central depression, plano-convex, with a nonstriate margin. The volva is absent. The gills are free, crowded, white, becoming tinted with yellow when bruised. The stem is 30 - 80 × 10 mm, pithy, white, subtly striate above. The bulb is ovoid to globose, marginate, 20 - 25 mm wide. The ring is membranous, superior, white, often tearing away from stem during expansion. The volva is limbate, membranous, intimately connected to the bulb, white, persistent, with highest point 20 - 30 mm above the base of the bulb. The spores measure 7 - 8 × 5 - 6 µm and are subglobose and amyloid. Gilbert's (1941) drawings of spores sometimes do not match the information provided in his descriptions. Measuring the spore drawings yields 8.9 - 11.5 × 7.8 - 10.3 µm. Basidia probably lacking clamps because of its assigned section. Originally collected in Madagascar, Africa. The original collector, Decary, provides a pencil sketch of the type. His measurement of the stem clearly includes that of the bulb which is proportionately quite large. In one of his drawings, it is clearly the shape of an egg. The other drawing shows the bulb flattened at the base. -- R. E. Tulloss Return to Section Phalloideae page. Last changed 28 July 2005. |