Amanita sordidogrisea - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita sordidogrisea
name status nomen acceptum
author A. E. Wood
english name "Wood's Dirty Gray Amanita"
intro

The following is largely based on the original description (Wood, 1997).

cap

The cap of Amanita sordidogrisea is up to 50 mm wide, convex then plane, smooth, dry, dull buff to buff-gray, with a nonstriate margin.  The volva is present as scattered, flat, thin, membranous scales, distinctly paler than the cap color.

gills

The gills are free, thin, crowded, pale cream, with a concolorous margin.  The short gills are present in at least one series.

stem

The stem is up to 90 × 9 mm, expanding downward, white, smooth, exannulate in the only known material, without a volva or remains at the clavate base of the stem.  The base is off-white.

spores

The spores measure (6.6-) 7.5 - 9.0 × (4.2-) 4.8 - 5.4 µm and are elongate and amyloid.  Clamps are absent at bases of basidia.

discussion

Wood describes this species as occurring in "tall open forests" from the state of New South Wales, Australia.  No potential symbionts are cited.  This species is known only from the type collection.

Since we have perceived difficulties with the assignment of section Validae of a number of Wood''s species (for example, A. elongatispora) when we see an exannulate species assigned to section Validae our concerns arise again.  However, a change in placement is not so clearly required here as in other cases.  In this case despite the possibility of understanding Wood's description to the contrary, he draws an ellipsoid cell immediately below a basidium in his illustration.  Moreover the taxon lacks clamp connections, and so the argument for excluding it on the grounds of clamp connections being present does not arise.  In addition, the basidia are of the size one would expect in section Validae.  It seems to us that the simplest line of reasoning entails placement of the species in section Validae under the assumption that in the single collection examined by Wood, the ring on the stem was lost.

With regard to Wood's use of the term subhymenium, see our discussion of Amanita elongatispora (link above).—R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel

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