Amanita subjunquillea var. alba - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita subjunquillea var. alba
name status nomen acceptum
author Zhu L. Yang
english name "East Asian Destroying Angel"
images
  • Amanita subjunquillea, Uttarakhand state, India.Amanita subjunquillea, Uttarakhand state, India.

    1. Amanita subjunquillea, Uttarakhand state, India.

  • Amanita subjunquillea, Sichuan Prov., China.Amanita subjunquillea, Sichuan Prov., China.

    2. Amanita subjunquillea, Sichuan Prov., China.

    • cap

    The fruiting body of A. subjunquillea var. alba is small to medium-sized. The cap is (20-) 30 - 100 mm wide, first hemispherical, then convex to plano-convex to applanate, white to whitish, sometimes pale cream-colored to pale yellowish in the center, subviscid, glabrous and usually without volval remnants. The margin is smooth or sometimes finely striate and non-appendiculate, and the flesh is white to whitish.

    gills

    The gills are free and crowded, and the short gills are attenuate.

    stem

    The stem is 50 - 145 × 3 - 20 mm, subcylindrical or slightly tapering upward, white to whitish, smooth or with white fibrils or reflexed squamules. The stem's basal bulb is subglobose and 7 - 20 (-30) mm wide. The volva on the stipe base is limbate, membranous, sometimes leathery, with free limb up to 15 mm in height and 4 mm thick; both surfaces are white to whitish. An annulus is present; it is superior, white, and membranous or friable.

    odor/taste The odor and taste have not been described.  The species is deadly POISONOUS.
    spores

    The spores measure (6.0-) 6.5 - 9.0 (-10.5) × (5.5-) 6.0 - 8.5 (-10.0) µm and are globose to subglobose and amyloid.

    discussion The fresh basidiomes of A. subjunquillea var. alba give a yellow reaction to 5% KOH solution (see photograph, above).

    Amanita subjunquillea var. alba is deadly POISON.

    It appears similar to A. virosa (Fr.) Bertillon in DeChambre and is, perhaps, more closely related (note the cap is not irregularly shaped) to A. bisporigera G. F. Atk.  One may also wish to compare A. exitialis Zhu L. Yang & T. H. Li.

    There is no close relation to A. gemmata (Fr.) Bertillon in Dechambre (=A. jonquillea Quél.)—a species of Amanita section Amanita.

    This taxon was originally described from southwestern China.  It is widely distributed in China and Japan and is also known from northern India.—Zhu L. Yang and R. E. Tulloss
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