Key to Gilled Mushrooms KeyThis 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.
Agaricales OrderFruiting body containing fibers (usually in the stalk)
Amanita GenusFruiting 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)
Vaginatae SectionCap margin distinctly striate in maturity
Either (most commonly) annulus absent and colors brown or grey, or
(rarely) annulus present and colors bright: red, orange or yellow
Volva sack-like in some species, in others clamped tightly to the stem, leaving traces in bands of color on the stalk
Vaginatae SubSectionCap usually some shade of brown or gray, occasionally white
Annulus absent, but there may be strangulated zones on the stem
Universal veil material generally not present (or only occasionally) on the cap
Volva sac-like, or clamped tightly to the stem
Small Vaginatae Stirp
Diagnosis
- Cap up to 1 1/2" across at maturity, more often around 1"
-
Basidia predominantly bisterigmate
Narrow down your identification:
Amanita pachyspermaCap grey, with no brown tones
Amanita ristichiiCap (and entire mushroom) white; striations fairly short
Amanita virginianaCap brown, darker over the disk