Specimen AB#7 (Family Reunion)

Now this little beauty hails from the Hiram College Field Station. I was coming back from a class when I saw them. A mushroom family reunion; from tiny little upshoots to the big grown up caps flexing up into the air. I couldn't resist taking a look at this.

Figure 1. Amanita Muscaria (Yellow Variety) en masse at the Hiram Field Station

Figure 2. Amanita Muscaria (younger form)

Figure 3. Amanita Muscaria (opened cap)

Name: Amanita Muscaria (Var. Formosa)
Family: Amanitaceae

Collection Date: 9/22/2011

Habitat: Growing below pine trees among grass, clover, and pine needles

Location: Hiram College Field Station

Description: “Cap 5-30 cm broad, round becoming convex and finally plane or slightly depressed…color variable… bright yellow-orange to yellow, then fading (var. formosa)… covered at first with a dense coating of universal veil fragmens (warts) which are usually white… Universal veil friable, forming a scaly volva at apex of bulb…spore print white” (Arora, 1986).

Collector: Andrew Burns

Key Used: Arora. D., (1986) Mushrooms Demystified 2^nd Edition, Ten Speeds Press, New York, NY

Keying Steps:

Begin with “Major Groups of Fleshy Fungi” (p.52),

Sent to “Agarics (Gilled Mushrooms)”

Agaricales p.59

1b. Spores forcibly discharged, hence a spore print obtainable. Gills exposed at maturity…2

2a. Spore print white to buff…3

3a. Universal veil enveloping young specimens and forming a volva at base of stalk when it ruptures and/or leaving numerous remnants (warts or flat patches) on cap… p.262 Amanitaceae

“Amanitaceae”

1a. Volva present at base of stalk as a sack, free collar, or series of concentric rings…Amanita

“Amanita” p.266

1b. Volva collarlike (i.e., intergrown with base of stalk but with a free rim)…cap often with many small pieces of universal veil tissue (warts)…15

15b. universal veil remnants not yellow; cap may or may not be whitish…22

22b. Not as above…23

23b. Not as above…24

24a. Cap brightly colored (red, orange, or yellow); partial veil present, usually forming an annulus (ring) on stalk…25

25a. Volva usually a series of concentric rings at apex of bulbous stalk base, but sometimes only a simple ring or collar; cap medium sized to large…yellow form…common in Sierra Nevada and most of eastern North America…p.282, A. Muscaria

Bright Yellow …Var. Formosa

Correlating Links:
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/amanita_muscaria_formosa.html
http://www.erowid.org/plants/amanitas/amanitas_muscaria_formosa.shtml