Amanita franchetii

Description

Amanita franchetii is an inedible species in the family Amanitaceae. The cap is yellow-brown to brown and the flesh is white or pale yellow and has a mild odor.

It has been reported to be poisonous either raw or undercooked. Although the species was linked to the deaths of 10 people in China in 2005, these people had symptoms similar to those caused by amanita poisoning.

There is also a variety called AAmanita franchetii var. lactella, except for the bright yellow remnants of the universal veil, are white. It occurs in the western Mediterranean and is associated with several species of oak (Quercus suber and Q. robur) and hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and has also been reported in Serbia.

Common names: Franchet's Amanita, Gilded Amanita.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   55 - 120 mm wide, citrine yellow to yellow, palest towards the margin, sometimes whitish, hemispheric then convex, finally planar, oftentimes rather irregular, sometimes depressed in the center in age, shiny, viscid then silky, not virgate, with an appendiculate margin, sometimes striate in age. The volva is present as small, generally pyramidal warts, sulfur-yellow becoming paler and sordid (for example, pale grayish ochre), easily removable, densely placed. The flesh is 5 mm thick above the stem, white, with a thin yellow region just below the cap skin, tending to turn brown when wounded.

2. Gills

   Free at maturity, distant, white, up to 7 mm broad, not or only finely floccose. The short gills are truncate, rounded truncate, or attenuate.

3. Stem

   65 - 80 × 18 - 20 mm, white, solid, firm, striate above the ring, smooth or slightly flocculose below the ring, with a napiform bulb up to 33 mm wide.The ring is membranous, white, striate on the upper surface, with yellow volval warts on the edge. The volva is present as 2 or 3 incomplete rings of warts at the top of the bulb, at first yellow becoming yellowish to pale grayish-beige with age. The flesh is white, tending to turn brown when wounded especially at the base of the stem and the bulb.

4. Flesh

   The flesh is white and yellowish under the cap skin. It gains a yellowish color when cut.

5. Odor and Taste

   Has a pleasant taste and smell.

6. Spores

   The spores measure 7.5 - 9.5 (-11) × (5-) 5.5 - 7 (-7.5) µm and are broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid and amyloid. Clamps are absent at bases of basidia.

7. Spore Print

   White.

8. Habitat

   Solitary or in small groups in mixed hardwood/conifer woods.

9. Season

   July to November.

Look-Alikes

1. Amanita pantherina

   The distinguished feture of this mushroom is white velar that remains on the cap.

2. Amanita rubescens

   It looks very similar but its flesh turns red when cut (especially near the stem).

History

In 1881 French mycologist Jean-Louis Émile Boudier described this species and named it Amanita aspera var. franchetii.

In 1889 Swiss mycologist Victor Fayod changed it to currently accepted scientific name Amanita franchetii.

The specific epithet franchetii honors the French botanist Adrien René Franchet (1834 - 1900).

Varieties:

1. A. franchetii (Boud.) Fayod var. franchetii

2. A. franchetii sensu Thiers

3. A. franchetii (Boud.) Fayod var. lactella (E.-J. Gilbert & Kühner) Bon & Contu in Contu

Synonyms

1. Amanita aspera var. franchetii Boud., 1881

2. Amanita queletii var. franchetii (Boud.) Bon, 1985

3. Amanita sublutescens Velen., 1920

4. Amanita aspera

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Jason Hollinger (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Andreas Gminder (mollisia) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Darvin DeShazer (darv) (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 4 - Author: Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 5 - Author: gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K (CC BY-SA 2.0)