Amanita calyptratoides - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita calyptratoides
name status nomen acceptum
author Peck
english name "Peck's Candlestick Amanita"
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  • 1. Amanita calyptratoides, Tapia Co. Pk., Los Angeles Co., California, U.S.A.


  • 2. Amanita calyptratoides, Cleveland Nat. For., Riverside Co., California, U.S.A.

    • intro Amanita calyptratoides is unique amoung U.S. and Canadian amanitas because of its stipe that appears to be water soaked at least near the surface and the apparent, progressive dissolution of the ring.  A similar species that is genetically distinct is known from the neovolvanic zone of central Mexico (see A. tlaxcandela).
    cap The cap of Amanita calyptratoides is 30 - 100 mm wide, pale brownish-gray to pale brown to brown; it lacks an umbo, usually has marginal striations with length 10% to 20% of the cap radius (in large specimens striations may appear only with aging), and often bears one or more white membranous patches of the volva and/or a white "bloom" or "frost" over the disk.
    gills The gills are free, close to subcrowded, white to pale cream in mass, and 4.5 - 8 mm broad; the short gills are more or less truncate, of varying length, unevenly distributed, and plentiful.
    stem The stem is 50 - 145 × 6 - 20 mm, the color and appearance of a tallow candle; it bears a small white annulus that appears to dissolve into the stipe as time passes.  There is a white, membranous, sack-like volva (20 - 45 × 15 - 45 mm) at the base.
    spores The spores measure (8.5-) 9.8 - 14.0 (-17.0) × (5.5-) 6.5 - 8.9 (-11.8) µm and are ellipsoid to elongate (infrequently broadly ellipsoid) and inamyloid.  Clamps are present at bases of basidia.
    discussion Amanita calyptratoides occurs with coastal live oak in (Quercus agrifolia) central and southern California, U.S.A. and in the Baja California peninsula, Mexico.

    The name is often misapplied.  It has been mistakenly considered to be a synonym of A. calyptroderma G. F. Atk.  Amanita calyptratoides can be differentiated from A. calyptroderma by spore size and shape and by the former's unusual stipe and "dissolving" annulus.

    Central Mexican material formerly assigned to this species has been segregated genetically.  Morphological differentiation is still an open issue.  See A. tlaxcandela.—R. E. Tulloss
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