Amanita strophiolata - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita strophiolata
name status nomen acceptum
author Beeli
english name "Binga Death Cap"
synonyms
=Amanita strophiolata var. bingensis Beeli
intro The following description is based on the original descriptions of the two varieties of the present species, Beeli's revision of the species (1935), Gilbert's (1940 & 1941), and some investigation of original material by RET.
cap The cap of Amanita strophiolata is 60 mm wide, plano-convex, at times umbonate or depressed, dirty white and often yellowish in the center.  The cap bears no volval remnants and has a margin that can be slightly or markedly striate.  The flesh is very thin (perhaps membranous from the cap's edge half-way to the center) and white.
gills The gills of this species are free and white.
stem Its stem is 110 - 120 × 4 - 5 mm, cylindric, totally elongating, narrow, solid, smooth, white (pinkish in one of Mme. Goossens' watercolors), and bears a bulb at its base the width of which can be twice or more the width of the stipe.  The ring is superior, membranous, white, and at least at first pulled upward in the form of a funnel.  The volva is membranous and white and forms a free limb on the stipe's bulb.
odor/taste As precautionary measure, this species should be considered deadly POISONOUS.
spores Gilbert (1940) provides spores drawings in which spores measure 9.0 - 10.6 × 5.3 - 6.5 µm and are ellipsoid to elongate and amyloid.  RET's measurement of spore from the type of A. strophiolata var. bingensis showed the spores are (6.5-) 6.8 - 9.3 (-10.3) × (4.0-) 4.6 - 6.0 (-6.5) µm and ellipsoid to elongate (infrequently broadly ellipsoid) and amyloid.  Clamps are probably not present at bases of basidia.
discussion The present species was originally described from the Democratic Republic of Congo in swampy forests.

A variety of the species was also described by Beeli—Amanita strophiolata var. bingensis was described from a rather large collection made in association with Gilbertiodendron.

Gilbert observed that Beeli's argument for separation of the two varieties was not supported by the material of the type collections.  In fact, while Beeli separated the varieties based on spore size, cap color, and form of the stipe's ring, the spores of the two taxa are essentially identical as shown by Gilbert's (1940) spore drawings; the cap coloration is nearly identical in the watercolors painted of the two type collections; and the same watercolors show the same variation in form of the ring.

Gilbert also reported that the spore walls were somewhat thickened, slightly pigmented, and marked with striations that spiraled around the spore's major axis.  RET saw nothing like this when examining the spores of the type of A. strophiolata var. bingensis at 1250×.

I have some concern about retaining this species in section Amidella where it was placed by Gilbert (1941).  There doesn't appear to be a pulverulent inner-layer to the volva and Madame Goossens (in one watercolor) draws the volva as rather thin.  An upward pointing ring is unknown in section Amidella.  It seems possible that this species can be more properly placed in Amanita section Phalloideae.—R. E. Tulloss
brief editors RET

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