name | Amanita elliptosperma |
name status | nomen acceptum |
author | G. F. Atk. |
english name | "Atkinson's Destroying Angel" |
images | |
intro |
The following description is based on Atkinson (1909) and Jenkins (1982), with the addition of my observations of the type and a few additional collections. This species' name is the earliest in the group of North and Central American taxa with white fruiting bodies, ellipsoid spores, and thin membranous (not felted) partial veils. See the key including such taxa of the cited region here. |
cap |
The cap of Amanita elliptosperma is 38 - 84 mm wide, hemispheric at first, becoming convex, then plano-convex, and finally concave (upward flaring margin); it is white, sometimes with a tinge of cream color in the center. The cap context is 3 - 7 mm thick over the stem and thins evenly to the margin. The cap margin is smooth and not appendiculate. No remnants of the volva are present. |
gills |
The gills are free to narrowly adnate (sometimes with small decurrent tooth, but without a decurrent line on the upper stem) and crowded, off-white to dingy cream to pinkish in mass, and off-white to dingy cream to yellowish white in side view, and 5 - 6 mm broad. They are roughly lozenge-shaped and do not change color when bruised or broken. The short gills are rounded truncate to subtruncte to subattenuate to attenuate to attenuate in steps, very plentiful, of diverse lengths, and unevenly distributed. |
stem | The stem is 35 - 115 × 5 - 11 mm, tapering upward, solid. The basal bulb is ovoid and 19 - 42 × 16 - 33 mm. The ring is ample or torn in shreds, apical, skirt-like, membranous, and thin. The volva is ample, membranous, limbate, and more or less lobed. The highest point of the volva limb is 26 - 63 mm from the bulb's bottom. |
odor/taste | This species should be assumed to be deadly POISONOUS. |
spores |
Spores of the type of A. elliptosperma measure (8.0-) 8.7 - 11.2 (-11.5) × (5.8-) 5.9 - 7.5 (-7.8) µm and are ellipsoid (infrequently elongate) and amyloid. Clamps are absent from bases of basidia. |
discussion |
Originally described from North Carolina, USA. With a range probably extending from southern New England to the Gulf Coast and eastern Texas.
Amanita elliptosperma is the oldest available name in the group of taxa with thin and membranous annulus and ellipsoid spores. Amanita magnivelaris Peck can be distinguished by a proportionately large, relatively thick and felted ring. RET has distinguished a taxon similar to A. elliptosperma (but with narrower spores) as a separate species (Amanita sp-S04), but this may be an error. If so, the spore widths of the combined material would extend down to 4.9 µm.—R. E. Tulloss |
brief editors | RET |
name | Amanita elliptosperma | ||||||||
author | G. F. Atk. 1909. Ann. Mycol. 7: 366. | ||||||||
name status | nomen acceptum | ||||||||
english name | "Atkinson's Destroying Angel" | ||||||||
MycoBank nos. | 211002 | ||||||||
GenBank nos. |
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holotypes | CUP | ||||||||
intro |
The following text may make multiple use of each data field. The field may contain magenta text presenting data from a type study and/or revision of other original material cited in the protolog of the present taxon. Macroscopic descriptions in magenta are a combination of data from the protolog and additional observations made on the exiccata during revision of the cited original material. The same field may also contain black text, which is data from a revision of the present taxon (including non-type material and/or material not cited in the protolog). Paragraphs of black text will be labeled if further subdivision of this text is appropriate. Olive text indicates a specimen that has not been thoroughly examined (for example, for microscopic details) and marks other places in the text where data is missing or uncertain. The following material not directly from the protolog of the present taxon and not cited as the work of another researcher is based on original research by R. E. Tulloss. | ||||||||
basidia |
from type study of Tulloss: 30 - 45 × 7.5 - 13.5 μm, predominantly 4-, infrequently less than 4-sterigmate; sterigmata ??; neither clamps nor proliferated clamps present. composite from all material revised by Tulloss: 30 - 51 × 7.5 - 13.5 μm, predominantly 4-, rarely less than 4-sterigmate; sterigmata ??; neither clamps nor proliferated clamps present. | ||||||||
universal veil |
from type study of Tulloss: From limb at base of stipe, exterior layer: filamentous undifferentiated hyphae in loosely interwoven mat, gelatinizing; inflated cells few, smaller than in interior; vascular hyphae 1.8 - 3.2 μm wide. From limb at base of stipe, interior: filamentous undifferentiated hyphae 1.5 - 7.5 μm wide, plentiful; inflated cells plentiful, subglobose to ovoid to clavate (e.g., 44 - 68 × 29 - 45 μm); vascular hyphae 1.5 - 2.5 μm wide, frequency not recorded. From limb at base of stipe inner surface: abrupt termination of interior structure at gelatinized surface. composite of from all material revised by Tulloss: From limb at base of stipe, exterior layer: filamentous undifferentiated hyphae in loosely interwoven mat, partially to extensively gelatinized; inflated cells few, smaller than in interior (visibly only in specimens with partial gelatinization of exterior volval surface); vascular hyphae 1.8 - 3.2 μm wide (visibly only in specimens with partial gelatinization of exterior volval surface). From limb at base of stipe, interior: filamentous undifferentiated hyphae 1.5 - 7.5 (-13.2) μm wide, branching, plentiful to locally dominant; inflated cells plentiful to locally dominant, thin-walled, subglobose to pyriform to to ovoid subventricose to clavate to ventricose to elongate (e.g., 44 - 105 × 14 - 48 μm), terminal; vascular hyphae 1.5 - 6.8 μm wide, frequency not always recorded, sometimes scarce. From limb at base of stipe inner surface: abrupt termination of interior structure at gelatinized surface or with thin gelatinizing layer (from pileipellis?) comprised as follows: filamentous undifferentiated hyphae 2.8 - 7.0 μm wide, sublongitudinally oriented, branching; vascular hyphae 2.1 - 5.6 μm wide, branching, locally tangling. | ||||||||
stipe context | from type study of Tulloss: longitudinally acrophysalidic; filamentous undifferentiated hyphae not described; acrophysalides, e.g., 125 - 183 × 29 - 42 μm; vascular hyphae 5.5 - 15.0 μm wide. | ||||||||
partial veil | from type study of Tulloss: filamentous undifferentiated hyphae 1.8 - 8.5 μm wide, subradially arranged, without coils or twists, dominating; inflated cells thin-walled, ovoid (e.g., 29 - 51 × 16 - 32 μm) to clavate (e.g., 41 - 84 × 20 - 34); vascular hyphae rare or absent; clamps not observed. | ||||||||
basidiospores |
from type study of Tulloss: [40/1/1] (8.0-) 8.8 - 11.2 (-11.5) × (5.8-) 6.0 - 7.2 (-7.8) μm, (L = 9.9 μm; W
= 6.8 μm; Q = (1.29-) 1.35 - 1.66 (-1.69); Q = 1.48), hyaline, colorless, smooth, thin-walled, amyloid, ellipsoid, occasionally elongate, infrequently broadly ellipsoid, adaxially flattened, sometimes swollen at one end; apiculus sublateral, cylindric, proportionately small; contents granular to guttulate; color in deposit not recorded. composite from all material examined by RET: [110/4/4] (8.0-) 8.7 -11.2 (-11.5) × (5.8-) 5.9 - 7.5 (-7.8) μm, (L = 9.6 - 9.9 μm; L' = 9.8 μm; W = 6.5 - 6.9 μm; W' = 6.8 μm; Q = (1.25-) 1.29 - 1.60 (-1.71); Q = 1.40 - 1.50; Q' = 1.45), hyaline, colorless, smooth, thin-walled, amyloid, ellipsoid, infrequently broadly ellipsoid, rarely elongate, sometimes slightly swollen toward one end, adaxially flattened; apiculus sublateral, cylindric, proportionately small; contents granular to guttulate; ?? in deposit. | ||||||||
material examined |
Jenkins (1982): U.S.A.:
NORTH CAROLINA—Orange Co. - Chapel Hill, RET: U.S.A.: CONNECTICUT—Middlesex Co. - Devil's Hopyard St. Pk. [41.4756° N/ 72.3403° W, 72 m], 4.ix.2011 Kevin Scalzo s.n. [Tulloss 9-4-11-K] (RET 490-1). INDIANA—Monroe Co. - Bloomington, Griffey Lk., 27.ix.2012 Stephen Russell s.n. [mushroomobserver.org #111423] (RET 535-5). NORTH CAROLINA—Orange Co. - Chapel Hill, | ||||||||
discussion |
(t.b.d.) Spore measurements from the type study of Jenkins (1982) follow: [-/-/1] 9.4 - 10.9 × 6.2 - 8.6 μm, (Q = 1.27 - 1.75; Q' = 1.49), hyaline, thin-walled amyloid, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid to elongate; apiculus sublateral, cylindric; contents guttulate; color in deposit not recorded. | ||||||||
citations | —R. E. Tulloss | ||||||||
editors | RET | ||||||||
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name | Amanita elliptosperma |
name status | nomen acceptum |
author | G. F. Atk. |
english name | "Atkinson's Destroying Angel" |
images | |
photo |
RET - (1-2) West Virginia, U.S.A. Stephen Russell - (3) Griffey Lake, Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana, U.S.A. [This image in its original size can be viewed on mushroomobserver.org here.] |
name | Amanita elliptosperma |
bottom links |
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name | Amanita elliptosperma |
bottom links |
[ Section Phalloideae page. ]
[ Amanita Studies home. ]
[ Keys & Checklists ] |
Each spore data set is intended to comprise a set of measurements from a single specimen made by a single observer; and explanations prepared for this site talk about specimen-observer pairs associated with each data set. Combining more data into a single data set is non-optimal because it obscures observer differences (which may be valuable for instructional purposes, for example) and may obscure instances in which a single collection inadvertently contains a mixture of taxa.