Amanita submembranacea

Description

Amanita submembranacea is a species of fungi belonging to the family Amanitaceae. The young specimens have a noticeable cap margin which is paler than the rest of the cap. The cap color variety is wide and can be brown, gray and olive. It grows in the mountains on acid, organic, deep soils in association with fir, birch, larch, and spruce in most European countries. In Northern America, there is a very similar species called Amanita sinicoflava Tulloss.

Some sources say it is edible when cooked, but toxic raw, due to its thermovolatile toxins. Ultimate Mushroom does not recommend collecting and eating this fungus.

Common names: Olive Amanita, German: Grauhäutiger Scheidenstreifling, Olivgrüner Streifling, Grüner Streifling, Grünbrauner Streifling, Muchomůrka šedopochvá (Czech Republic), Gråspættet kam-fluesvamp (Denmark).

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   Up to 115 mm wide; the cap is gray-brown, reddish-brown, olive-brown, ocher-grey, olive-green in color. At first conical, later bell-shaped to convex, finally almost flat, with a low hump in the center. The surface is smooth and dry. Single, large, white to gray patchy debris is often present.

2. Gills

   Free, not very crowded, and off-white tending to gray or brown with age; the short gills are truncate to subtruncate, plentiful, and unevenly distributed.

3. Stem

   The stem is exannulate and has a sheathing, submembranous volva at its base. This volva rapidly becomes gray after it has been split to expose the pileus, and it often has the appearance of canvas with flakes of old paint on it.

4. Flesh

   White to slightly yellowish.

5. Spores

   (8.3-) 9.5 - 13.0 (-14.5) x (7.3-) 9.0 - 12,0 (-13.0) µm and are globose to subglobose (infrequently broadly ellipsoid) and inamyloid. Clamps are absent from bases of basidia.

6. Spore Print

   White.

7. Habitat

   Mixed forest, blueberry, mostly conifers, spruce, fir, larch, less often deciduous trees such as birch, beech, hazel, symbiotic fungus, often on acidic soil. It grows singly or in small groups.

8. Season

   June to October.

Look-Alikes

1. Amanita ceciliae

   The cap is olivaceous with a pale margin and its volva is substantial rather than thin and leathery.

2. Amanita virosa

   This mushroom has a smooth stem without a snakeskin pattern.

3. Amanita umbrinolutea

   The brown-yellow toadstool is similarly colored, but the remains of the vela on the skin of the cap are rare and the veil does not turn gray.

4. Amanita battarrae

   Can be similar in habitats. The cap is yellow-oli

History

In 1975 French mycologist Marcel Bon described this mushroom and gave it naming Amanitopsis submembranacea.

In 1979 German mycologist Frieder Gröger transferred to its current name Amanita submembranacea.

The specific epithet submembranacea refers to the very thin (submembranous) and brittle volva at the base of the stem.

Synonyms

1. Amanitopsis submembranacea Bon, Bull. mens. Soc. linn. Lyon 44 (6): 176 (1975)

2. Amanita griseoargentea (Contu) Contu, Micol. Veg. Medit. 12 (2): 146 (1997)

3. Amanita submembranacea var. griseoargentea Contu [as ‘submenbranacea‘], Micologia Veneta 2 (3): 8 (1986)

4. Amanita olivaceogrisea Kalaméés in Urbonas, Kalaméés & Lukin. 1986. Conspect. Fl. Agaric. Fung. Lithuaniae Latviae Estoniae: 45.

5. Amanita umbrinolutea var. fusco-olivacea Kühner ex Contu, Boletín de la Sociedad Micológica de Madrid 13: 91 (1989)

6. Amanita fuscoolivacea (Kühner ex Contu) Romagnesi, Amanita fusco-olivacea (Kühner ex Contu) Romagn., Bulletin de la Société Mycologique de France 108 (2): 74 (1992)

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Björn S... (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Irene Andersson (irenea) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 3 - Author: James Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 4 - Author: James Lindsey (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Photo 5 - Author: Jadf88 (CC BY-SA 4.0)