Amanita phalloides

This is a key to gilled mushrooms, that is, mushrooms having a definite cap with a fertile surface consisting of gills. The fruiting body usually also has a stem, although that may be lateral or absent (usually, then, the mushroom is growing from wood). You can use this key to identify mushrooms that you find.

Fruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)

Fruiting body having a combination of some of the following characteristics:
Stalk growing out of a cup of cottony tissue called a volva (all white-spored mushrooms with a volva go here)
Cap with scattered patches or flakes of the same sort of tissue as the volva (see second picture), easily peeled off
Annulus (skirt-like ring on stalk)

Annulus always present
Either volva present, sack-like and cap either white or olive brown, or
Stalk with a basal bulb and cap either greyish brown or yellow

Volva sack-like

Amanita phalloides     Link: Fries

Here are the characters that distinguish this species from the others in its group. For its more general characters, see higher up on the page.
If there's just a few words or a microscopic feature here, a more thorough description can be found above.

Diagnosis

• Cap up to 6" across; virgate, making it look a little streaked; yellowish green at margin, shading to olive brown over the disk
  
• Volva usually lobed or petalloid, almost resembling a tulip in shape

Microscropic Characters

• Spores 8-11 x 6.5-8 µm

Comments

This mushroom has been described as having several types of odors, among them "sickeningly sweet", "unpleasant", and "becoming foul"
This is the Amanita that kills the most people in Europe. So far, it has only been found on the East and West coasts of this country. If you find it in the Mid-West, give us a holler! (and dry the mushroom and send it to us)


 

 

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