Amanita maryaliceae - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita maryaliceae
name status nomen provisorum
author Tulloss, K. W. Hughes, et al.
english name "Mary Alice's Amanita"
images
  • Amanita maryaliceae, Mohawk Tr. St. For., W. of Charlemont, ca. border of Berkshire & Franklin Cos., Massachusetts, U.S.A.Amanita maryaliceae, Mohawk Tr. St. For., W. of Charlemont, ca. border of Berkshire & Franklin Cos., Massachusetts, U.S.A.

    1. Amanita maryaliceae, Mohawk Tr. St. For., W. of Charlemont, ca. border of Berkshire & Franklin Cos., Massachusetts, U.S.A.



  • 2. Amanita maryaliceae, note pallid volval remnants on top of bulb in material with separated partial veil, Lackawanna St. For., Lackawanna Co., Pennsylvania, U.S.A.  (RET 550-7)


  • 3. Amanita maryaliceae, Lackawanna St. For., Lackawanna Co., Pennsylvania, U.S.A.  (RET 550-7)



  • 4. Amanita maryaliceae, note dark volval remnants of unknown origin/cause on immature specimens, Oneida Co., New York, U.S.A.  (RET 598-1)

  • cap The cap is 50 - 90 mm wide, white to a metallic brown and somewhat translucent at first, with time a pale orangish tint may develop hemispheric to bell-shaped to rather flattened or (occasionally) slightly concave.  To date, staining or bruising has often not been seen.  It may be slow to develop.  The surface is tacky at first, shiny, with a suggestion of embedded concolorous radial fibrils.  The cap flesh is white, with a watery line just above the gills, and does not change when cut or bruised.  The cap's nonappendiculate margin is usually not striate, although sometimes it may become faintly striate for about one-tenth of the cap's radius or longer in age.  Volval remnants are absent from the cap or may be present as irregular warts or a submembranous patch of loosely connected warts; the remnants are white to off-white, easily crumbling, easily removed, and tend to become grayish with age.
    gills The gills of this species are free to narrowly adnate with a decurrent tooth and (often) a decurrent line on the top of the stem.  They are white in mass (sometimes faintly pink at first), white in side view, and do not change when cut or bruised.  Occasionally to rather commonly adjacent gills may be connected by at some point.  Also, the gills may fork, but with open end of the forked gill pointing toward the stem rather than toward the cap's margin.  The short gillls are truncate to rounded truncate to subtruncate to subattenuate to attenuate; they are sometimes adjacent to the stipe rather than to the pileus margin; and they are unevenly distributed, of diverse lengths, and plentiful.
    stem The stem is 57 - 135 × 5 - 12 mm, white, and does not change when cut or bruised; it is decorated with fine fibers or flocculent material.  The stem's bulb measures 22 - 42 × 14.5 - 21 mm; it is somewhat turnip-like to somewhat like a short carrot, with white mycelium threads attached to it.  The stem's flesh is solid to firmly stuffed, white, unchanging when cut or bruised or rarely turning pale pinkish brown in the lower part of the stipe.  The stem's ring is at or near the top of the stem.  It is ample, skirt-like, striate above, and often has a line of beige (eventually graying) volval material on the ring's edge or on its underside near edge.  The ring eventually collapses on the stem.  The volval may not be evident, or it may be present as an easily detached patch or patches that can accidentally be left in the soil during the collecting process.  At other times, the volva may be present in broken collars or irregular rows.  In mature material, the volva is off-white to very pale grayish, and often darkens with age.
    odor/taste The odor of A. maryaliceae is mild or pleasant when the flesh is cut, close to "floral," or sometimes strongly "floral."  The taste has not been recorded.
    spores The spores of this species measure (6.3-) 7.0 - 9.0 (-9.5) × (4.5-) 4.9 - 6.3 (-7.0) µm, are broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid (or, occasionally, elongate) and amyloid.  The basidia lack clamps at their bases.
    discussion This species is only known from a limited number of collections at present.

    Molecular studies show that the name has been incorrectly applied to Amanita media/A. radiata in the Gulf Coast area and to A. ostendemihi over the range of that species.—R. E. Tulloss
    brief editors RET

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