Image of Amanita vaginata (Bull.) Lam. 1783

Description:

Slo.: sivi lupinar - syn.: Agaricus vaginatus Bull., Amanita livida Pers., Amanitopsis albida (Fr.) S. Imai, Vaginata livida Gray and more than 100 others var. and fo. - Habitat: Mixed wood, mainly hardwoods, almost flat terrain, cretaceous clastic rock (flysh) bedrock, quite humid place, in shade; partly protected from direct rain by tree canopies; average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 8-10 deg C, elevation 400 m (1,280 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil. Comments: Michael Kuo on his MuchroomExper,com site, which I like very much, writes: 'Amanita vaginata, is a gray to grayish brown species with a sack like volva, a lined cap margin, and no ring on its stem. That's the theory, anyway. The reality is that you might as well call a mushroom that meets this description 'Steve,' if you want to be scientific. Perhaps there are a few highly variable species, and perhaps things like cap color, the 'constrictedness' of the volva, and spore dimensions can accurately predict phylogenetically distinct species - but I doubt it.' Experts have described tens of similar looking mushrooms. However, Index Fungorum, which knows for well above one hundred synonyms, gathers all of them together under the name Amanita vaginata. Probably, under this name many similar but at the same time very variable species exist, which of cause poses a hard problem to separate them. Since this find had almost white hut (normally it is supposed to be some kind of gray, grayish-brown) it may eventually be named also Amanita vaginata var. alba (De Seynes) Gillet. But the grayish buckle poses problems. Var. alba is supposed to be completely white. Anyway, the mushroom found was very elegant. This species is comestible, but I would never collect it since other, some of them deadly poisonous, Amanitas are also variable to an extent, which is only partly known. At least, not to me. Spores smooth, dimensions: (8,3) 9,1 - 12,2 (14,1) x (7,9) 8,9 - 11,8 (13,9) microns; Q = 1 - 1,06 (1,1); N = 39; Me = 10,5 x 10,2 microns; Qe = 1. Olympus CH20, NEA 100x/1.25, magnification 1.000 x, oil (spores); in water, fresh material. AmScope MA500 digital camera. Ref.: (1) Personal communication with Mr. Bojan Rot, www.gobenabovskem.si (2) http://www.mushroomexpert.com/amanita_vaginata.html (accessed Sept. 30. 2017) (3) R. Phillips, Mushrooms, Macmillan (2006), p 150. (4) J. Breitenbach, F. Kraenzlin, Eds., Fungi of Switzerland, Vol.4. Verlag Mykologia (2000), p 144. 5 (5) G.J. Krieglsteiner (Hrsg.), Die Grosspilze Baden-Wrttembergs, Band 4, Ulmer (2003), p 30. (6) M. Bon, Parey's Buch der Pilze, Kosmos (2005), p 294. (7) S. Buczacki, Collins Fungi Guide, Collins (2012), p 242.