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EDIBLE AND POISONOUS MUSHROOMS OF CANADA
This poisonous Amanita is fairly common and widely distributed. The
ragged volval scales on the stipe are very characteristic but the scales on the
pileus may become washed off by rains. On the west coast of North America
the form with reddish pileus seems to be the common one; while in the East the
pileus tends to be yellow to orange. A white form is sometimes found. For a
comparison with A.frostiana and A.flavoconia, see the notes on those species.
See also the notes on A. velatipes.
AMANITA PANTHERINA (DC. ex Fr.) Seer. Deadly poisonous
PILEUS 2-4 in. broad, convex at first, becoming expanded to nearly plane,
viscid, surface covered with whitish, pyramidal warts which later may fall off
or be washed off, typically smoky brown in color but varying to yellowish
brown or olive-brown, sometimes quite yellowish, margin striate, flesh
whitish, thick in center to thin at margin, odor not distinctive, lamellae
white, free or attached by a line at first, close to crowded, with 1-2 tiers of
lamellulae. stipe 2^/2-4 in. long, %-% in. thick, swollen at the base, white,
silky above the annulus, fibrillose below, stuffed, annulus median or superior,
floccose-membranous, fibrillose below, margin yellowish to grayish brown.
VOLVA closely adhering to the bulb as a sheath with a free collar, sometimes
leaving a few concentric rings of volval tissue on the stipe, forming whitish
warts on the pileus. spores white, smooth, nonamyloid, broadly ellipsoid to
ovoid, (8) 9-11 (12) X 6.5-8 }x.
Under conifers apparently only along the west coast. May-Nov.
This is a very poisonous mushroom and according to Smith (1949)
it has caused more deaths in Europe than A. muscaria, which usually receives
more publicity. All of the records in our herbarium are from British Columbia
except one, which is from the Yukon. A. pantherina may not occur in eastern
North America but it has been included because of its very poisonous properties.
It is reported to be variable in color, typically brown but sometimes
varying to yellow. Yellow forms may be confused with A. muscaria but the
collar-like margin of the volva should distinguish it. A. velatipes is paler,
larger, and more fragile.
AMANITA PORPHYRIA (A. & S. ex Fr.) Seer. Suspected
Figures 135, 136, page 71
PILEUS 1-2 )/2 ir^- broad, convex, becoming expanded, sometimes broadly
subumbonate, brown to gray-brown or muddy brown, smooth, viscid, usually
bearing a few remnants of the friable, gray volva, nonstriate, tending to remain
for a long time decurved on the margin, flesh thin, white, odor not distinctive.
LAMELLAE free, close, moderately broad, creamy white, stipe 2-41/2 in. long,
Va-Vi
bulb, often patterned with innate gray flecking on a white background.
ANNULUS thin, membranous, ashy gray, collapsing against the stipe. Volva
84
in. thick, equal or tapering upward above the rather soft, subglobose