Amanita morrisii

The cap of Amanita morrisii is 45 - 95 (-114) mm wide, dark grayish brown to blackish brown becoming paler brownish gray with age, sometimes remaining darker over the center until nearly fully expanded, sometimes becoming virgate upon partially drying, subcampanulate becoming broadly convex to planoconvex, with flattened umbo, sometimes with a depression in the center, sometimes glistening when moist, tacky to viscid when moist, with a usually nonstriate margin, sometimes with short striations in age, sometimes splitting, nonappendiculate.  The volva is absent or present as irregular, submembranous to friable patches or confluent groups of warts, off-white to pale brownish gray, minutely granular.  The flesh is white, sometimes pale umbrinous under the cap skin, sometimes with watersoaked line above the gills, 5 - 8 mm thick above the stem, and thinning evenly to margin.

The gills are free to narrowly adnate, close, white in mass and in side view, becoming primrose yellow quickly during force air drying and then becoming paler, 6 - 10.5 mm broad, broadest at about three-quarters radius from stipe, thin, with rather straight edge, sometimes with marked decurrent tooth, with long decurrent line on stipe apex.  The short gills are rounded truncate to subattenuate to rounded attenuate, of diverse lengths, unevenly distributed, and plentiful.

The stem is 95 - 153 × 10 - 15 mm, white, sometimes pale gray to pale brown above the ring, white at the top of the stem, cylindric or narrowing upward, satiny to slightly floccose or fibrillose below the ring, darkening somewhat on these surface fibrils from handling, with longitudinal striations.  The bulb is clavate to subglobose, sometimes doglegged, 18.5 - 38 × 18 - 38 mm.  The ring is membranous, persistent, superior, collapsing, white and striate above, smooth and pink to pinkish to pale orangish buff or pale ochraceous buff below.  The volva is present in whitish to pallid grayish patches on the lower stem or upper part of the bulb, easily left in the soil or lost during collecting.  The flesh is white at least near center, sometimes pale gray or pale brown toward surface, becoming bright primrose yellow (at least near the top of the stem and in bulb) when rapidly dried (forced air dryer), solid or stuffed.

The odor of this species is noticeably fruit-like (at least to RET).

The spores measure (6.0-) 7.2 - 9.8 (-11.5) × (4.2-) 5.5 - 7.0 (-8.2) µm and are broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid (infrequently subglobose or elongate) and amyloid.  Clamps are absent from the bases of basidia.

Note the pale orange-beige tint on the bottom of the very narrow annulus and on the stipe below the annulus.  Young buttons have caps that are almost black.

This species occurs in wet areas from Maine to New Jersey and probably in neighboring regions.  The specimens in the photograph were found in New Jersey Pine Barrens in wet sand by a pond.

In North America this species is distinguished by its tendency to occur in moist soil such as at the edges of swamps or in sandy soil near bodies of water in the Pine Barrens.  In addition, it has one of the most narrow rings known from section Validae.  The ring also has unusual coloration for this section.  Floral or fruit-like odors are not uncommon in North American Validae, for example see A. submaculata Peck.—R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel

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.

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