Amanita hunanensis - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita hunanensis
name status nomen acceptum
author Y. B. Peng & L. H. Liu
english name "Hunan Slender Caesar"
intro The following is based on the descriptions by Peng and Liu (1981) and Yang and Zhang (2002).
cap The cap of A. hunanensis is 40 - 130 mm wide, dark gray-brown at first, paler towards the margin, becoming paler upon expansion but when the center remaining dark and with concentric circles of dark spots ranging from a solid-colored center at least part of the way through the striate area towards the margin, at first hemispheric, then convex to plano-convex, with a long striate (60% or more of the radius) and nonappendiculate margin, commonly splitting.  The volva is often present on the cap as one or more membranous patches. The flesh is white.
gills The gills are crowded, free, and white.  Short gills are present.
stem The stem is 70 - 140 × 5 - 20 mm, white with gray-brown squamules arranged in irregular concentric bands from the underside of the ring to the top of the volval limb, hollow, fleshy, narrowing upward.  The ring is membranous, persistent, thin, skirt-like, placed anywhere between one-quarter distance from the top to slightly below the midpoint of the stem, grayish white on the upper surface, and dark brownish gray on the lower surface.  The volva is short saccate, white on the outer surface, inner surface probably concolorous with the cap [illustration shows dark inner surface], and 15 - 35 × 15 - 35 mm.
spores Peng and Lui (2002) reported the spore to be 8.5 - 14 × 7.5 - 9.5 µm, ellipsoid and inamyloid.  Clamps are present at bases of basidia.  Spores measured from an isotype by Yang and Zhang (2002) are 10.0 - 12.0 × 6.5 - 8.0 µm.
discussion This species was originally described from a pine forest in the province of Hunan, China, in which it occurred in large groups.

The authors point out that the patterning of the cap skin with concentric circles of dark spots is unique among similar taxa.  A. hunanensis can be placed in Amanita stirps Hemibapha.  ZLY currently views this species as close to A. esculenta Hongo & I. Matsuda and A. yuaniana Zhu L. Yang.—R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel
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