Snakeskin Grisette

Appearance

"Amanita ceciliae" is characterized by bearing a large fruit body with a brown cap 5–12 cm across. The cap has charcoal-grey patches, which are easily removable. The stipe is 7–18 cm long, white in colour, and there is no ring on it. It is slightly tapered to the top, and has irregular cottony bands girdling the base.

The universal veil is grey. Spores are white, spherical in shape, non-amyloid, and measure 10.2–11.7 micrometres.

The cap is 5–12 cm across, shape ranging from convex to flat. It is upturned, and has a deep-coloured margin. There is a low umbo. It is grey to a brownish black in colour, darkest in the center and paler towards the margin. Generally smooth, the cap surface is slightly sticky when moist.

The cap surface is characterized by having loose, fleecy, charcoal-grey patches of volval remnants scattered across it. The patches are easily removed. The margin is strongly striated. The cap colour may vary, and pale forms are known to exist, for example, as in the types "A. c. f. decolora" and "A. c. var. pallida". "A. c. var. royeri", first described by mycologist L. Maire in 2008 and occurring in France, is a cinder black-capped variation.

Gills are free and closely spaced, and white in colour. They can be thick, and are often forked. The stem is 7–18 cm long, and 120–200 mm x 20–40 mm thick. It is lightly stuffed and then hollow, and there is a slight tapering to the top. It is white in colour, with flat grey hairs, often in a zig-zag pattern.

It does not bear a ring and has fragile, cottony, brownish or charcoal-coloured oblique girdles of volval remnants around the stem base and lower stem. The volva is white to grey, powdery and delicate. The flesh is white and does not change colour when cut. Although it lacks any distinctive odor, it tastes sweet.

Spores are white in colour, spherical and are not amyloid. They measure 10.2–11.7 µm. A few large-sized spores are commonly found in a mount of gill tissue. Clamps are not found at bases of basidia.

Naming

"Amanita ceciliae" was first described by Miles Joseph Berkeley, an English cryptogamist and clergyman, and Christopher Edmund Broome, a British mycologist, in 1854. It is placed in the genus "Amanita" and section "Vaginatae". Section "Vaginatae" consists of mushrooms with special characteristics – such as the absence of a ring, and very few clamp connections at the bases of the basidia.

Habitat

Europe
In Europe, "Amanita ceciliae" is widespread everywhere, though infrequently encountered. It often inhabits deciduous forests with hornbeam, oak, beech and birch, but it can also rarely occur with conifers: pine, fir, spruce and cedar. It has a preference for neutral to calcareous soils.

North America
In North America, it is found mainly in areas east of the Mississippi River, but similar mushrooms also occur in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and Texas. Its range also stretches south into Mexico. They are ecologically mycorrhizal, and habitats include hardwood forests and coniferous forests. The mushroom grows alone, scattered, or in groups during summer and autumn. It is primarily eastern in distribution but also reported in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and Texas.