Amanita arenicola - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita arenicola
name status nomen acceptum
author O. K. Mill. & D. J. Lodge
english name Beach-loving Ringless Amanita
images
intro The following information is based on the original description of A. arenicola and on RET's study of the type and other material mentioned in that description.
cap The 13 - 55 mm wide cap of A. arenicola is convex to flat to slightly or strongly depressed in the center or funnel-shaped, moist to sticky, smooth, and Drab Gray to Light Drab Gray.  The edge zone of the cap is evenly Pale Drab Gray and radially grooved  The volva remnants on the cap are flat, pale buff to Chamois to Yellow Ochre patches of varying size that are easily removed.
gills The gills of the present species are barely free, close, white, with an edge of the same color, and 3 - 5 mm broad.  Some gills fork near the stem.  Short gills are present in 1 - 2 distinct lengths.
stem The smooth, exannulate stem of this species measures 35 - 100 × 3 - 10 mm wide and is dull white, cylindric or tapering upward, and moist.  The stem's flesh is soft, fragile and white; and there is a stuffed central cylinder.  A proportionately small, saccate, white volva is encloses the stem's base.  It is fragile and often has cup-like basal portion appressed to stipe, with one-half or more of the sack's height free.  Often ragged fragments of the upper part of the sack are found in soil around a fruiting body or adhering to lower stem.
odor/taste Odor and taste have not been recorded for this species.
spores The spores of A. arenicola measure (8.5-) 9.0 - 12.7 (-13.8) × (6.0-) 7.2 - 9.0 (-10.9) μm and are broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid (rarely subglobose) and inamyloid.  Clamps are lacking from bases of basidia.
discussion Amanita arenicola is found in sand on ocean beaches in Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands.  Its most likely symbiont is reported to be Coccoloba uvifera.—R. E. Tulloss
brief editors RET

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