Brown star-footed Amanita

Appearance

Cap: 3-11 cm, convex, becoming broadly convex with a shallow central bump, or nearly flat; tacky at first or when wet; varying in color from grayish brown to whitish, often with a darker center; sometimes developing reddish brown stains; often somewhat streaked or mottled in appearance; usually featuring a few scattered, randomly distributed white to grayish or tan warts; the margin often becoming faintly lined for a few mm.

Gills: Free from the stem; white; close or crowded; not discoloring, or sometimes discoloring brownish.

Stem: 6-12 cm long; 0.5-1.5 cm thick above the bulb; tapering to apex; bald or silky; with a relatively persistent, skirtlike, white ring that sometimes develops a reddish brown edge and often collapses against the stem; usually ending in an abrupt, rimmed basal bulb that is "chiseled" or split vertically in one or more places; discoloring and bruising reddish brown, especially near the base; volval remnants usually absent but occasionally present as a few patches along the upper rim of the bulb.

Flesh: White throughout; firm; not discoloring, or sometimes discoloring or bruising reddish brown, especially around worm channels.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Chemical Reactions: KOH on cap surface negative; on flesh in stem base slowly slightly yellowish.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 6.5-10 µ; smooth; globose or subglobose; amyloid. Basidia without basal clamps; 4-spored. Pileipellis a cutis or ixocutis of hyphae 2-6 µ wide. Lamellar trama bilateral; subhymenium ramose or with inflated cells.

Naming

Amanitina brunnescens G. F. Atk.
Amanita brunnescens var. pallida L. Krieg. 1927
Amanita viridis var. fuliginea Schwein. 1822
Amanita phalloides var. fuliginea Ferry. 1911
Amanita phalloides f. fuliginea ("Peck") Gilbert [Superfluous name.]

Distribution

US: Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Massachesetts, Vermont, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas
Canada: Ontario, Quebec
Also Mexico and Costa Rica

Habitat

Mycorrhizal with various hardwoods and conifers; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall.