Amanita malleata

The cap of A. malleata is (30-) 50 - 120 (-150) mm wide, hemispheric at first, then more or less conic or campanulate, and nonappendiculate, with a strongly striate margin; it is grayish beige to leaden, becoming pallid dirty white in age. The flesh is white, unchanging when cut or bruised, and rather thin above the gills. The volva is distributed on the cap in large warts or patches, pale at first, then yellowish or pale ochraceous or dirty white in age.

The gills are free, creamy white to ochraceous cream and even slightly pinkish when drying, and somewhat ventricose, with fimbriate or lightly puncticulate edges . The short gills are of diverse lengths and infrequent in some material examined.

The stem is (60-) 100 - 120 (-150) × 10 - 20 mm, smooth, exannulate, narrowing upward, white to off-white above, becoming progressively more snakeskin-patterned and grayer toward the base. The flesh is white, stuffed at first, and rapidly becoming hollow. The saccate volva is fragile, breaking into more or less floccose shreds and fragments, whitish or with ochraceous stains or spots on the exterior with grayer hues on the inner surface. The limbus internus was lacking in material examined.

The spores measure (9.8-) 10.5 - 13.5 (-22) × (7.0-) 8.0 - 11.0 (-12.8) µm and are inamyloid and subglobose to broadly ellipsoid (occasionally ellipsoid). Clamps are not found at bases of basidia.

This species has been described three different times (Tulloss, 1994) from France (Déps. Ain, Oise, and Somme). The hammered appearance of the cap in the first publication of an image of this species occurs in numerous other taxa in Amanita and is dependent upon environmental factors such localized decay from insect penetration of the cap's skin. The species is known only from Europe.

The most similar species within section Vaginatae are A. dryophila Consiglio & Contu, Amanita cistetorum Contu & Pacioni, and the lesser known A. biovigera Singer.—R. E. Tulloss

The editors of this site owe a great debt to Dr. Cornelis Bas whose famous cigar box files of Amanita nomenclatural information gathered over three or more decades were made available to RET for computerization and make up the lion's share of the nomenclatural information presented on this site.