Amanita rhoadsii var. flavotingens - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita rhoadsii var. flavotingens
name status nomen acceptum
author Bas
intro The following description is based on the original description by Bas (1969).
cap The cap of Amanita rhoadsii var. flavotingens is 65 mm wide, plano-convex, white, turning yellow when bruised, dry, with a nonstriate margin.  The cap is completely covered with a powdery to somewhat finely fibrillose volval layer, sometimes with fluffy, floccose, small warts near the center.  The flesh is white and turns yellow when cut.
gills The gills are crowded, touch the stem, rather narrow, white, yellow when bruised. The short gills are attenuate.
stem The stem is 80 × 10 mm, solid, white, yellow where bruised, covered with floccose material, lacking a ring, cylindric.  The bulb is elongate-radish-like and 40 × 25 mm.  The volva is present as some vague, friable fragments on the top of the bulb.  The flesh is white, turning yellow when cut, at length turning reddish brown.
odor/taste The taste is mild. The odor is slightly pungent but not of decaying protein ("chloride of lime").
spores The spores measure 10 - 12 × 3.5 - 4.5 µm and are cylindric to bacilliform, slightly yellowish, and amyloid.  Clamps are present at bases of basidia.
discussion This species was originally collected from Florida (USA).  The tree association is unknown.

Among the differences from the type variety are the yellowing reaction, the strong gelatinization of the cap surface including cap flesh below the volval remnants, the alteration of the odor, the spores are shorter, and the length to breadth ratio is not reported to exceed 3.2.  RET questions the taxonomic value of this variety because the yellow staining (with the eventual transition to red-brown in the stem) suggests the "yellowing syndrome" seen in other species of section Lepidella in Eastern North America.  The unusual degree of gelatinization (decay?) of the cap and the reduction in size of spores are other characteristics that suggest this specimen was diseased. For more notes on the "yellowing syndrome" see A. subsolitaria (Murrill) Murrill.—R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel

brief editors RET

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