Amanita floccosolivida - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita floccosolivida
name status insufficiently known
author Beeli
english name "Dark-Tufted Volvella"
intro The following description is based on Beeli (1935).
cap The cap of Amanita floccosolivida is 60 - 70 mm wide, flattened-convex, with a prominent umbo, with soft flesh and a nonstriate margin.  The cap is pale lilac-gray covered with small lilac-gray floccose scales that are easily removed.  The flesh is white and reddens on exposure to air.
gills The gills are free, white, 9 mm wide, and pointed at the end of the stem.
stem Its stem is 60 - 70 × 8 - 9 mm, solid, ochraceous-purple, generally cylindric, and curved toward the base.  The stem is easily detachable from the cap. The ring is superior, membranous, skirt-like, ample, white, covered on the bottom with mauve flocculents.  The volva is membranous, brownish, smooth on exterior, floccose-mauve on the interior.  The flesh is white and reddens on exposure to air.
odor/taste The taste is sweet.
spores The spores measure 5 × 3 µm in diameter and are ??.
discussion The present species was originally described from the Republic of Congo in a forest of Gilbertiodendron.

The totally elongating stem, membranous volva with an inside floccose layer, pink staining of the tissue, elongate spores, and the pallid color of the cap all suggest this species should be placed in section Amidella.

Unfortunately Gilbert (1941) did not treat A. floccosolivida in his compendium of Amanita.  As a consequence, there are no spore drawings to check against Beeli's reported spore size.  Beeli's spore measurements are notoriously in error (too small).  Especially with small-spored species, Beeli often reports a spore size 1 - 4 µm shorter in both dimensions than is found in recently gathered material.  This observation should be taken into account in determining material otherwise macroscopically similar to A. floccosolivida.

There is a small paper by Gilbert and Beeli that raises a question of whether this species is an Amanita at all.  In this paper (see the "technical" tab for the present species), the authors say the spores are colored and thick-walled and not shaped like the spores of an Amanita.  They go so far as to create the genus Volvella of which the present species is designated the type.  The lectotype of A. floccosovolva should be reviewed before a final decision on whether or not this entity is an Amanita.  In the meantime, I suggest that its status should be "insufficently known."—R. E. Tulloss
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