Amanita mutabilis - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita mutabilis
name status nomen acceptum
author Beardslee
english name "Anise And Raspberry Limbed-Lepidella"
images
  • Amanita mutabilis, southern New Jersey, U.S.A.Amanita mutabilis, southern New Jersey, U.S.A.

    1. Amanita mutabilis, southern New Jersey, U.S.A.

  • Amanita mutabilis, Franklin Parker Preserver, ca. Chatsworth, Burlington Co., New Jersey, U.S.A.Amanita mutabilis, Franklin Parker Preserver, ca. Chatsworth, Burlington Co., New Jersey, U.S.A.

    2. Amanita mutabilis, Franklin Parker Preserver, ca. Chatsworth, Burlington Co., New Jersey, U.S.A.

  • Amanita mutabilis, Franklin Parker Preserver, ca. Chatsworth, Burlington Co., New Jersey, U.S.A.Amanita mutabilis, Franklin Parker Preserver, ca. Chatsworth, Burlington Co., New Jersey, U.S.A.

    3. Amanita mutabilis, Franklin Parker Preserver, ca. Chatsworth, Burlington Co., New Jersey, U.S.A.

  • Amanita mutabilis, Franklin Parker Preserver, ca. Chatsworth, Burlington Co., New Jersey, U.S.A.Amanita mutabilis, Franklin Parker Preserver, ca. Chatsworth, Burlington Co., New Jersey, U.S.A.

    4. Amanita mutabilis, Franklin Parker Preserver, ca. Chatsworth, Burlington Co., New Jersey, U.S.A.

  • Amanita mutabilis BeardsleeAmanita mutabilis Beardslee

    5. Amanita mutabilis, Lytle Pk., W. Palm Beach, Palm Beach Co., Florida, U.S.A.

    • cap

    Amanita mutabilis has a white to pale tan pileus 50 - 110 mm wide, that is flat and has a very broad, low umbo.  The white flesh will turn from white to red or magenta if scratched.  The volva may be present as an inconspicuous, membranous, white patch.

    gills The gills are free to narrowly adnate with lines descending onto the top of the stem, close, pale cream, bruising like the cap flesh.  The short gills are sometimes absent; when present, they are very short, obliquely truncate, and sometimes merge with a neighboring gill.
    stem

    Its stem (up to 130 × 22 mm excluding the bulb) is white and terminates below in a bulb (up to 80 × 50 mm) bearing a membranous, limbate volva.  The annulus is skirt-like, attached near the top of the stem, and white to yellowish. All these parts are white at first, but the flesh will become red to magenta if scratched.

    odor/taste The odor is often distinctly of anise.
    spores

    The spores measure (8.7-) 10.0 - 14.6 (-18.9) × (5.0-) 6.0 - 8.0 (-12.6) µm and are ellipsoid to elongate (rarely cylindric) and amyloid.  Clamps are absent from the bases of basidia.  When basidia are crushed, they often release granules that are dextrinoid.

    discussion

    Before a specimen of A. mutabilis is handled, bruised, or smelled, it may suggest a robust specimen of the white destroying angels (sect. Phalloideae) in the field.  Two striking characters of A. mutabilis are its odor and the staining of its context.  When scratched, the flesh quickly turns the color of American raspberry sherbet.

    The odor (especially just as the collecting packet around a fresh specimen is opened) often is distinctly of anise.  Odor alone is not a sufficient character for determining this mushroom because other species of Amanita in its geographic range also may smell of anise.

    This is a species of the pine-oak woods of the sandy, Atlantic coastal plain in the eastern United States.

    Its range extends from New Jersey to Florida and Texas.  It has recenly been reported from Rhode Island.

    Bas placed A. mutabilis in his stirps Preissii (see the Australian species A. preissii (Fr.) Sacc.).  It is interesting to compare A. mutabilis with another Australian species, A. rosea D.A. Reid.—R. E. Tulloss

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