Amanita solaniolens - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita solaniolens
name status nomen acceptum
author H. L. Stewart & Grund
english name "Old Potato Amanita"
images

  • 1. Amanita solaniolens, Pachaug St. For., New London Co., Connecticut, U.S.A.   (RET 110-9)



  • 2. Amanita solaniolens aka sp-CR18, La Chonta, Ctn. Dota, Prov. San José, Costa Rica.


  • 3. Amanita solaniolens aka sp-CR18, El Empalme, Ctn. Dota, Prov. San José, Costa Rica (RET 336-6).



  • 4. Amanita solaniolens aka sp-CR18, El Empalme, Ctn. Dota, Prov. San José, Costa Rica (RET 336-1).


  • 5. Amanita solaniolens aka sp-CR18, La Chonta, Ctn. Dota, Prov. San José, Costa Rica (RET 338-2).



  • 6. Amanita solaniolens aka sp-CR18, La Chonta, Ctn. Dota, Prov. San José, Costa Rica (RET 331-3).

    • intro The following is based on the original description by Stewart and Grund (1974) with some additional information from Jenkins (1986) and additional research by Dr. K. W. Hughes and RET.

    cap The cap of Amanita solaniolens is 39 - 45 mm wide, dull-yellow to light blond at the margin, abruptly darkening to olive brown at the center, with a greenish tinge over the entire cap, broadly convex to plane, viscid when moist, fibrillose-silky, and with a nonstriate margin.  The volva is present as one or two large, flat patches, and creamy white to yellowish white.  The flesh is firm and white, except for a narrow creamy white region just under the cap skin.
    gills The gills are free, moderately close, creamy white to yellowish white, 4 - 5 mm broad, with a minutely floccose edge.  The short gills are rounded truncate to subattenuate to attenuate, of diverse lengths, unevenly distributed, and common.
    stem The stem is 76 - 92 × 4 - 5 mm, nearly cylindric or narrowing upward, creamy white, staining slightly brownish when bruised, and undecorated except for a slightly fibrillose-silky region near the bulb.  The stem is firmly stuffed to nearly hollow.  According to the illustration in the original description, the bulb is subabrupt and has some longitudinal splitting as in Amanita brunnescens G. F. Atk.  The ring is creamy white to pale yellow, attached near the top of the stem, skirt-like, membranous, and collapsing against the stem.  The volva is present on the globose bulb as a narrow free margin and is yellowish white to creamy white and submembranous.
    odor/taste The odor is of old potatoes, and the taste is said to be very mild.
    spores According to the original description, the spores measure (6.6-) 7.2 - 9.0 µm long and are globose to subglobose and amyloid.  Clamps are absent at bases of basidia.  Jenkins (1986) reported spore measurements as follows: 6.1 - 9.2 × 6.6 - 9.0 µm.
    discussion This species was originally described from Nova Scotia, Canada, where it occurs solitarily under eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis).  Otherwise in eastern North America, this mushroom occurs in mixed forest with a number of possible coniferous and broad-leaved hosts.  In Costa Rica, A. solaniolens occurs with Quercus (Oak) species in montane forest.

    For those persons familiar with RET's regional keys and the checklists produced at forays in the northeastern USA, previously collected material of this species has been called "Amanita sp-N20" (formerly "species N20"), "A. sp-O02" (formerly "species O2"), and "A. sp-CR15" (in the case of Costa Rican material).

    When the cap of solaniolens has pigmentation distributed as in the manner of collections formerly called "sp-N20" in these pages (see page background image), the species is somewhat similar to A. brunnescens.  Even the variability of cap color is somewhat similar in the two taxa.  However, the nearly invariable nrITS and nrLSU of A. solariolens suggests that it may be placed in Amanita stirps Mappae rather than in in stirps Brunnescens.—R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel
    brief editors RET

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