"Americas Most Wanted" Amanita, and European Names

This distinctive Amanita was cream-colored, with thin, tan warts on the cap, gills with a pale purple cast, and an elongate, slightly swollen basal bulb. It was presented at the FFSC Fair in a duck basket, and was mislabeled as a silvicola. It turned out to be a member of the unusual subsection limbatulae, in section lepidella (which includes silvicola, smithiana and magniverrucata). These limbate lepidellas have the unique feature of a thin membrane over the basal bulb, and apparently reach their apex of diversity here in our great state of California. Dr. Rod Tulloss, world expert on Amanitas, would love to hear from the person who collected this mushroom; collection data is needed (who, what, where, and when; the why is because we love ’em!) If you believe that you collected this mushroom, please contact me and I will pass on the information to Rod. More collections would be invaluable, so keep your eyes peeled for this unusual lepidella in your future woodland walks.

By the way, thanks to all of the folks that showed up for my Amanita talk in March. I had fun sharing my passion for this interesting group (and learned that Santa Cruz velosas can commonly have a brownish cast to their caps, unlike my cap-color experiences with them in the East Bay). I hope that you had fun and learned something, too.

Speaking of learning, one of your members asked an interesting question, and one that I had been puzzling over myself: what causes the striations on the caps of some Amanitas? Since I didn’t know the answer, I ran it by Rod. He replied that Bas (the father of the modern study of Amanitas) believes that striations are an evolved trait. Basically, if you slice a striated cap through the center, you will see a membrane, rather than fleshy cap context, in the area of the cap where the striations are formed. A very thin pileus context (read membrane) allows the gills to be packed very closely, without expending a lot of water and energy to open a big, heavy cap. Long striations correlate rather well with broad, membranous pileus margin areas. So, you might say that members of the section vaginatae (our various grisettes, Caesar’s mushroom, etc.) are among the most highly evolved of the Amanitas. Delicious, too. (Caution: Be absolutely sure you have correctly identified this species before choosing to consume it yourself.)

And in answer to one other question that was posed to me, yes, it is true that “our” Amanita baccata is not the same as the European form. But, until it is formally described and named, it is still being referred to as Amanita baccata sensu Arora, or “Arora’s baccata”; this is how it keys out in the excellent key to Amanitas of the PNW, written by Jan Lindgren, and put out by the PNW Key Council, a must-have for serious students of Amanitas. To further muddy the waters, (and give us the blues), “our” Amanita franchetii is also not even remotely the same as the gray-capped European franchetii. But again, for simplicity’s sake, and until we have a new name, franchetii it is. Just like in many of our North American groups of mushrooms, with names based upon European species, there is still much work to be done. But the fun is in the trying.

- Amanitarita (Debbie Viess)

Other reading:

• Top Ten Poisonous Mushrooms of California

• Meet Amanita pruittii: Arora’s Amanita, Anonymous No More!