Amanita eucalypti - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
[print] [map]
name Amanita eucalypti
name status nomen acceptum
author O. K. Mill.
english name "Thick-Limbed Death Cap"
images

  • 1. Amanita eucalypti, Western Australia, Australia.



  • 2. Amanita eucalypti, Western Australia, Australia.



  • 3. Amanita eucalypti, Western Australia, Australia.

    • intro The following description is based on Miller (1992).
    cap The cap of Amanita eucalypti is 40 - 65 mm wide, broadly convex to nearly planar in age, smooth, glabrous, brown, sometimes darker brown, with a nonstriate and nonappendiculate margin.  The volva is present as a single, thin, white volval patch on the center.  The flesh is firm, white, and unchanging.
    gills The gills are subdistant, adnate, white.  The short gills are approximately one for every full length gills.
    stem The stem is 60 - 160 (-180) × (4-) 7 - 24 mm, narrowing upward, white with loose fibrils.  The volva is present as pronounced, thick, free limbs up to 20 mm high at the top of the bulb.  The ring is persistent, apical, skirt-like with a striate upper surface.  The bulb is 18 - 33 mm, moderately deeply rooting with a nearly pointed base.  The flesh is firm, white, and unchanging.
    odor/taste There is no distinct odor.
    spores The spores measure 8 - 12 × 6 - 7.5 (-8.5) µm and are ellipsoid to elongate to cylindric and strongly amyloid.  Clamps are absent at bases of basidia.
    discussion Originally described from the state of Western Australia where it occurs partially buried under Eucalyptus, Allocasuarina, and at one site near Mediterranean Pinus.

    The volval limb is extraordinarily thick for a species of section Phalloideae and very much suggests the sort of limb one sees in section Amidella.  On the other hand, the accompanying photograph does not clearly show either the termination of the stem within the bulb or a continuation of the stem beyond the point of attachment of the volva.  The absence of a definitive indication that the stem is totally elongating and inserted within a thick volval sac means there are no grounds to disagree with the interpretation of Miller that the species should be placed in the Phalloideae.  However, comparison of the protolog with recent photographs (shown on this page) indicate that revision of this species may be necessary.—R. E. Tulloss
    brief editors RET

    [top]