Amanita atkinsoniana
Amanita atkinsoniana, also known as the Atkinson's amanita, is a species of fungus in the family Amanitaceae. The fruit body is white to brownish, with caps up to in diameter, and stems up to long. The surface of the cap is covered with brownish conical warts.
The mushroom is found in the northeastern, southeastern, and southern United States as well as southern Canada, where it grows solitarily or in small groups on the ground in mixed woods. Although not known to be poisonous, it is not recommended for consumption.
Taxonomy
The species was first described by American botanist William Chambers Coker in 1917, in his monograph of Amanitas of the eastern United States. Coker's description was based on several specimens he had collected from various locations in North Carolina in September and October 1914. The specific name honors George Atkinson, a Cornell University mycologist who collected and described mushrooms in the southern and eastern United States in the late 19th century. In 1952, Marcel Locquin chose to place it in the genus Armillaria as Armillaria atkinsoniana, but this change was not adopted by later authors.A. atkinsoniana is classified in the stirps Microlepsis of subsection Solitariae, in the section Lepidella of the genus Amanita. Species in the subsection Solitariae are distinguished by several characteristics: a volva composed of cellular structures of varying shape; rows of large cylindrical to slender club-shaped cells that are never dominant; a stem that typically has a bulbous base and remnants of the volva on the surface that are concentrated towards the base; the volva is not membranous nor nearly membranous, never forming a limb at the base of the stem, and never forming patches on the surface of the cap, where the outer layer consists of hyphae pressed against the surface.
Description
The cap of A. atkinsoniana is wide, and depending on its age, ranges in shape from convex to flattened, sometimes with a shallow central depression. Its color can vary from whitish to yellowish-white, brownish-gray, brownish-orange to grayish-brown, and is lighter on the margin. The cap surface is covered with the remnants of the universal veil as small reddish-brown to grayish-brown, easily removable, conical warts. Approaching the edge of the cap, the warts gradually become small, woolly patches. The cap margin is smooth or has faint grooves mirroring the underlying gills, and has partial veil remnants hanging along the edge. The gills are free from attachment to the stem, close to crowded together, moderately broad, yellowish-white, and occasionally have a slight reddish stain. The lamellulae are truncate to attenuate.The stem is long and wide, equal or tapering slightly toward apex, whitish, and floccose to smooth. The basal bulb is club-shaped, ventricose-fusiform or turnip-shaped, rounded or pointed, usually covered with rings of reddish-brown scales or warts of universal veil remains, often extending up the stem for a short distance. The universal veil on the stem base is quite unusual in Amanita, because it forms warts that extend nearly to the very bottom of the bulb. The stem often roots into the soil beneath the bulb with an elongated cord of mycelium known as a pseudorhiza. The partial veil forms a ring that is somewhat membranous, fragile to moderately persistent, and yellowish-white to pale yellow. Eventually, as the mushroom matures, it collapses on the stem as a thin membrane. The flesh is white, with a weak odor of chlorine.