conifers such as Norway spruce but also under broadleaf trees such as aspens and birches
EDIBILITY: Poisonous and hallucinogenic.
COMMENTS: This mushroom has a long history of use as an intoxicant. It also has caused nausea, dizziness, and digestive issues. It reportedly has been used to kill flies. There are many species and varieties, some with a bright red cap. It is a beautiful and iconic mushroom and can be found on postcards, artwork, children’s book covers, and so forth. The orange or yellowish orange variety is the common one in most of the Appalachians. Occasionally a white variety can be found. Compare Amanita parcivolvata (p. 7), which is smaller and lacks a ring, and Amanita flavoconia (p. 12), which is less robust and has yellow cap warts. The common Appalachian variety has been called Amanita muscaria var. formosa and Amanita muscaria var. guessowii. A red- to pinkish-peach-colored species, Amanita persicina (not illustrated) is found in southern areas. Faded specimens can resemble Amanita velatipes (p. 15), which is never orange and often has an upturned ring and a collared bulb.
Amanita muscaria
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Amanita velatipes G. F. Atkinson
SYNONYM: Amanita pantherina var. velatipes (G. F. Atkinson) D. T. Jenkins
COMMON NAME: Booted Amanita
FAMILY: Amanitaceae
CAP: Up to 8 in. wide; yellow when young, becoming cream to white toward the margin in age, at times cream, buff, or tan all over; may have light brown stains; ovate to bell shaped becoming convex to flat and rarely depressed in the center; surface viscid; obscurely striate, bald, with numerous white, buff, or tan warts that can be washed off in wet weather
FLESH: White; not staining when damaged; odor mild; taste unknown
GILLS: White to pale cream; free; crowded; edges even; covered at first by a membranous partial veil
STEM: Up to 8 in. long; whitish; solid; equal or tapering up slightly from a prominent basal bulb that often has universal veil remnants, sometimes forming bands but terminating at the top with a collar-like rim; with a prominent ring that is unusual in that it is often pulled upward, funnel-like, usually near the middle of the stem; surface bald to silky above the ring, finely hairy to shaggy below
SPORE PRINT: White
ECOLOGY: Mycorrhizal with conifers and broadleaf trees; often in parks and cemeteries; spruce and oak are two frequently observed host trees; scattered to gregarious; at times in arcs or rings; summer and fall; locally common
EDIBILITY: Poisonous
COMMENTS: This large, striking mushroom is set off from the similar Amanita cothurnata (not illustrated) by its yellow colors and generally larger size. Pale forms of Amanita muscaria (p. 14) are similar but lack the collared bulb and median, upward flaring ring.
Amanita velatipes
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Amanita brunnescens G. F. Atk.
SYNONYMS: Amanita brunnescens var. brunnescens G. F. Atk., Amanita brunnescens var. pallida L. Krieg
COMMON NAME: Cleft-Foot Amanita
FAMILY: Amanitaceae
CAP: Up to 5 in. wide; dark brown to tan, or whitish with brown stains, often streaked brown; rounded, becoming convex then flat; surface slightly tacky when wet, with white, cottony patches from the universal veil; faintly striate
FLESH: White to brownish, with reddish-brown stains; thin; odor of raw potatoes; taste not recorded
GILLS: White, sometimes with brown stains; close to crowded, free, or just reaching the stem; broad; edges even or flocculose; covered at first with a white partial veil
STEM: Up to 6 in. long; white with brown stains toward the base; equal or narrowing upward; solid, with a white, persistent, skirt-like, apical ring, the edge of which may be brownish; surface smooth to scurfy, flocculose; brown, stained bulb at the base that may have patches of the universal veil along the upper rim; bulb is often prominent and usually has one or more wedge-like vertical clefts
SPORE PRINT: White
ECOLOGY: Mycorrhizal; solitary or gregarious in soil or humus under conifers and broadleaf trees, especially oaks; summer and early fall; common
EDIBILITY: Not recommended; possibly poisonous, and there are similar toxic species
COMMENTS: Whitish forms have been called Amanita aestivalis (not illustrated), which may be a distinct species. Amanita brunnescens caps can be white and have been described as a variety, namely, as Amanita brunnescens var. pallida. Collections from the same site can have both brown and whitish caps. Compare with Amanita submaculata (p. 17), which has a sweet odor and lacks a prominent basal bulb on the stem.
Amanita brunnescens
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Amanita submaculata Peck
SYNONYM: None
COMMON NAME: None
FAMILY: Amanitaceae
CAP: Up to 4 in. wide; gray or dark grayish brown, remaining dark at the center and gray toward the margin; convex becoming almost flat; surface tacky when wet, bald, or with a single tissue patch or a few warts toward the cap center, at times with small, longitudinal, whitish spots, most commonly near the margin
FLESH: White to grayish, thin, unchanging when damaged; odor sweet, fruitlike, at times resembling that of Pleurotus pulmonarius (p. 116); taste unknown
GILLS: White, free or barely reaching the stem; close to crowded, edges even; covered at first with a whitish partial veil
STEM: Up to 6 in. long; whitish with brown to dark brown fibrils; solid; tapering slightly upward from a small basal bulb that may have a few universal veil warts; surface fibrillose, may show orangish-brown stains, especially after handling; partial veil forms an apical skirt-like ring
SPORE
