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[ Keys & Checklist/Picturebooks ] "Cryptic Amidella" :: Technical description (t.b.d.) BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The following is largely based on the original description (Wood 1997). The cap of Amanita pallidogrisea is 40 mm wide, convex then plano-convex, smooth, dry, pale gray, with a nonstriate margin. Volval remains are present as flat, membranous scales, most dense near the center, white to slightly off-white. The gills are free, crowded, thin, white, with a concolorous edge. The short gills are present in at least one series. The stem is up to 30 × 6 mm, white, and smooth. The ring is white, very friable, and almost always absent in mature specimens. The base is very slightly swollen [Wood's illustration suggests the stem is totally elongating] and is encased in a membranous volva which has a distinct free limb and is white to slightly off-white. The spores measure 9.3 - 11.4 (-12.0) × 7.2 - 8.7 (-9.6) µm and are broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid and amyloid. Clamps are absent from bases of basidia. Wood describes the mushroom as occurring in sclerophyll forests and subalpine woodland from the state of New South Wales, Australia. A sclerophyll forest in the Australian bush is a forest of hard-leaved plants including Eucalyptus in the overstory (wikipedia). Subalpine woodland in New South Wales includes such tree genera as Acacia, Eucalyptus, Kunzea, Leptospermum, and possibly others (for example, see this sample report on subalpine vegetation in NSW). Wood's placement of the present species in section Validae is in error. Wood's drawing of this species suggests that the volval remains at the stem base could be either a substantial limb directly attached to a bulb or a saccate volva on a totally elongating stem. His description of the volval material on the cap says that it is dominated by hyphae with occasional inflated cells. His drawing suggests that inflated cells are common. Although his terminology for the lamella trama and the subhymenium are difficult to interpret (see Amanita elongatispora A. E. Wood for discussion) from his description it would appear that the subhymenium is not cellular. Wood also emphasizes the friability of the ring in the present species. Given the above factors, we propose placement of the present species in section Amidella. The spores are a little broad for this section outside of Australia. On the other hand, Australian taxa of all sections have a good deal to teach us about Amanita taxonomy and systematics. As we have noted on our pages for A. murinaster A. E. Wood and Amanita peltigera D. . Reid, it would be of interest to further explore A. pallidogrisea morphologically and phylogenetically in hopes that such work on this particular species may shed further light on Amanita evolution. -- R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel
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