Amanita aprica - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita aprica
name status nomen acceptum
author J. Lindgr. & Tulloss
english name "Sunshine Amanita"
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  • Amanita aprica, note thin layer of volva remaining attached to cap surface, Oregon, U.S.A.Amanita aprica, note thin layer of volva remaining attached to cap surface, Oregon, U.S.A.

    1. Amanita aprica, note thin layer of volva remaining attached to cap surface, Oregon, U.S.A.

  • Amanita aprica, Oregon, U.S.A.Amanita aprica, Oregon, U.S.A.

    2. Amanita aprica, Oregon, U.S.A.

  • Amanita aprica, Oregon, U.S.A.Amanita aprica, Oregon, U.S.A.

    3. Amanita aprica, Oregon, U.S.A.

  • Amanita aprica, Oregon, U.S.A.Amanita aprica, Oregon, U.S.A.

    4. Amanita aprica, Oregon, U.S.A.

  • intro

    Amanita aprica is a species of old growth forest illustrated and described in (Tulloss and Lindgren, 2005). It is known from SW Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the contiguous U.S. In addition to its striking cap color, its tendency to occur in sunlight along paths and in breaks in forest, note the frost-like layer of volva that often remains attached to the cap surface for a long time. The uppermost part of the cap's skin and the lowermost part of the volval remnants on the cap are actually intergrown.

    cap The cap is 50 - 150 mm wide, bright yellow to egg yellow to lemon yellow or bright orangish yellow, occasionally orange (especially in the middle), colors sometimes fading and duller after exposure, globose at first, then convex to plano-convex, finally flat with or without center depressed. The flesh is 6 - 20 mm thick above the stipe and white except immediately below the cap skin where the flesh is yellow. The cap''s margin is not or barely striate. Volval remnants on the pileus appear as a frost-like layer of downy fibrils and/or a covering of confluent warts (white to creamy white to yellowish white). The intimate attachment to the cap skin causes the volval remnants to stretch (becoming thinner as they do so) with the expansion of the cap.
    gills

    The gills are free to seceding, close to subdistant, white to creamy white in mass and in side view, 5 - 12 mm broad, broadest at midpoint, and bear a fimbriate (sometimes uneven) edge. Short gills are truncate to excavate-truncate and numerous.

    stem

    The stipe is 33 - 91 × 14 - 35 mm, white to cream to creamy tan, and bruising light tan where handled, usually cylindric. The stipe's bulb is often indistinct at maturity, taking the form of a subclavate base to the stipe. The stipe's context is white to pale yellow and firmly stuffed with white tissue when young; it may become partially or entirely hollow later in development. The annulus is superior to median, white to cream, skirt-like, felted-membranous at first, often collapsing on the stipe, and sometimes evanescent. Volval remnants at the stipe's base usually appear as a low free limb encircling the top of the bulb. The remnants are white to creamy tan to pale tan and are seldom rolled outward. They may also appear as detersile rags on the lower stipe, may be entirely left behind the soil by a collector, or as detersile rings above the free limb mentioned above.

    odor/taste

    The species is POISONOUS producing nausea, vomiting, intestinal cramps, muscle spasms, and diarrhea.

    spores

    The spores measure (8.0-) 9.5 - 13.0 (-21) × (5.0-) 6.5 - 8.5 (-12.5) µm and are ellipsoid to elongate (occasionally broadly ellipsoid) and inamyloid. Clamps are infrequent at the bases of basidia and rather difficult to find.

    discussion

    Amanita aprica occurs mainly with conifers (Douglas Fir and several species of Pine) and is quite common in the Cascade Mtns. of Oregon and Washington states (U.S.A.). It also occurs in the Sierra Mtns. in California. It may be found as a solitary mushroom or growing gregariously at altitudes from 600 - 1850 m elev. It is reported from the spring and very early summer. None of the material collected in the fall and reviewed by the species'' authors proved to belong in A. aprica.

    The fact that rings of volval tissue may be left on the lower stipe during development of A. aprica has caused it to be confused with various taxa classed as A. muscaria (in a broad sense). The species in the A. muscaria "group" do not have the cap skin and volva connected as is found in A. aprica and can be distinguished in the field by absence of warts or presence of scattered warts instead of having the distinctive layer of volva typical of A. aprica. Under the microscope, all the taxa in the muscaria "group" have common basidial clamps. Amanita aprica is most similar to taxa of the A. gemmata "group." The only species of this group that has been named in the U.S. is A. russuloides (Peck) Sacc., a species occurring only in eastern North America—as far as is known. The matter is made confusing for North Americans by the fact that as many as three or four other taxa are called "A. gemmata" in their collecting regions. However, none of these mushrooms appears to actually belong to the European taxon. To make matters worse, taxa with a range of different colors are all called gemmata in Europe. The status of these taxa is still not clarified.
    —R. E. Tulloss and J. E. Lindgren

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