Bulbous Phalloideae     SubSection

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

Diagnosis

• No volva
  
• Base of stalk bulbous
  
• Cap brownish or yellowish

Narrow down your identification:

Prominent, slightly rimmed basal bulb which is split vertically in several places around the edge
Cap white, with some yellowish or tan on the disk
Flesh staining brown

Prominent, slightly rimmed basal bulb which is split vertically in several places around the edge
Cap brownish-grey, slightly virgate
Flesh bruising reddish brown

Cap yellow to pale greenish yellow (the ones in the picture are whiter than usual)
Universal veil patches on cap white at first, becoming brown in age
Bulb smelling of potatoes when scratched, gills smelling likewise
Bulb sometimes with a top surface of its own, sometimes just with a clear seam where it meets the stalk

Cap up to 4 1/2" across; slightly sticky when wet; dark brown with purplish or vinaceous tinges when young, fading in age
Bulb large, almost a perfect circle in profile
Stalk often with bands of brownish grey fibers

Lookalikes: Amanita pantherina var. pantherina Volva peronate. Pileus up to 10" across. Spores inamyloid.

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