Amanita virella

The following is based on the original description by Beeli (1935) as well as the description by Gilbert (1941).

The cap of A. virella is 50 - 60 mm wide, convex at first, then plano-convex, at first dark umbre, then becoming greenish umbrinous, fleshy, with a slightly striate margin.  The volva is present as friable thick pyramidal warts or as small narrow warts mainly over the center.  The flesh is 3 - 5 mm thick above the stem, firm, whitish cream, becoming intense green.

The gills are free, yellowish white to pale sulfur yellow, then becoming pale green, 4 - 5 mm broad, pointed at both ends.

The stem is 90 - 120 × 5 - 12 mm, cylindric, pallid olivaceous to grayish, solid, smooth, with a bulbous base that is 15 - 20 mm wide and subglobose to ellipsoid.  The ring is placed high on the stem, membranous, persistent, skirt-like, off-white, and dark umber on the upper surface at the edge.  The volva is friable and leaves only a pale brown circlet at the base of the stem above the bulb.  The flesh is white, becoming green near the top of the stem.

The odor is penetrating.  The taste is bitter.

Spores from the original description by Beeli (1935) measure 10 - 11 × 6 - 7 µm and are amyloid.  Spores measured from Gilbert's spore drawings (1940) measure 9.1 - 11.4 × 6 - 8 µm and are broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid.

This species was originally described from the former Belgian Congo where it occurred singly in dry forest.

Gilbert emphasized that the green staining reaction was notable for its intensity. Gilbert gives additional information about this species but provides no source. His observations are not justified by the original description or the watercolor provided to Beeli by Madame Goossens. In this additional material, he says that the flesh in the stem can have a yellowish tint at first and may become pinkish at the top of the stem before becoming green. Anyone able to provide us information about the source of Gilbert's observations will receive our sincere gratitude.—R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel

The editors of this site owe a great debt to Dr. Cornelis Bas whose famous cigar box files of Amanita nomenclatural information gathered over three or more decades were made available to RET for computerization and make up the lion's share of the nomenclatural information presented on this site.

"Gilbert (1940: 70) place this species in his genus Aspidella, which is identical with Amanita section Lepidella in the present work, but the type material revealed a distinctly coloured pileipellis combined with a non-appendiculate, subsulcate margin of the cap, a membranous ring, a volva that leaves only fugacious remnants on the small to medium-sized bulb of the stem, and ellipsoid, amyloid spores 9 - 11 × 6.5 - 8 μ on 2-spored, clampless basidia.  It is clear that A. virella belongs to Amanita section Validae."

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