Technical description (t.b.d.)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The following description is based on the original description by Consiglio and Contu (1999).

The cap of A. dryophila is (50-) 85 - 150 (-200) mm wide, more or less saturated hazel-brown, sometimes with orange shades, never with gray tints, rather fleshy, bell shaped at first, then convex to plano-convex, hardly ever completely expanded, viscid when moist, with a striate margin [according to the illustration, barely striate at first]. The volva is absent or present as detersile, white to slightly ochraceous, small crumb-like remnants. The flesh is firm, white, and unchanging.

The gills are free, rather broad, rather thick, narrowed at the ends, white, with a white to pale hazel-orange edge.

The stem is (60-) 100 - 150 (-200) × 15 - 30 (-40) mm, stuffed, rather strong, cylindric or narrowing upward, dry, white, flecked with pale hazel or hazel-orange fibrils in zigzag bands, with the lower part of the stem white or whitish, often shaded ochre. A ring is absent. The volva is saccate but brittle, easily broken, often difficult to collect without breaking, sometimes remaining as a belt  of tissue on the lower half of the stem. The The flesh is firm, white, and unchanging.

Odor and taste are indistinct.

The spores measure 10.6 - 11.9 × 8.9 - 10.2 µm and are dominantly broadly ellipsoid, rarely ellipsoid or subglobose and inamyloid. Clamps are absent at bases of basidia.

This species was originally described from Italy but is also known from southern France. This species occurs in small groups in open sunny forests of broad-leaved trees, mainly oak (Quercus illex, Q. suber, Q. robur, etc.) on basic soil.

In the original description, the discussion contains numerous errors. If section Vaginatae were to be divided into stirpes based on current knowledge, then the present species would indeed be placed with the group of species having broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid spores, an obviously branching, largely uninflated subhymenium, and a fragile and not graying volva. In contradiction to the original description, the present species would be placed precisely nearest Amanita malleata (Piane ex Bon) Contu and A. biovigera Singer. -- R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel

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Last change 10 July 2006
This page is maintained by R. E. Tulloss.
Copyright 2006 by Rodham E. Tulloss.