| name | Amanita borealisorora |
| name status | nomen provisorum |
| author | Tulloss |
| english name | "Northern Sister Ringless Amanita" |
| images |
  1. Amanita borealisorora, Bath Co., Virginia, U.S.A.  2. Amanita borealisorora, Bath Co., Virginia, U.S.A. |
| cap | The cap of A. borealisorora is 55 - 82 mm wide, pallid brown with grayish or olivaceous tint (a washed out brown, not tan) or grayish brown with center browner, becoming darker with age, sometimes pale cream over the striations at first, broadly bell-shaped, and becoming nearly flat. The cap flesh is mostly white, with a grayish region just below the cap's skin in the center, and does not change when cut or bruised. The edge of the cap is striate (with grooves taking up 20-40% of the cap's radius). Volval remnants appear as crumbly warts and small or (occasionally) large patches with pale edges, whitish at first, becoming gray to grayish brown to dark gray to blackish gray with age and exposure. |
| gills | The gills are free, lack a connected line on the top of the stem, are close to subcrowded, off-white (near the stem) and grayish (near pileus margin) or entirely grayish white; and they become distinctly grayer with age. They have a white or whitish and minutely powdery edge. The short gills are truncate, of widely varying lengths, plentiful, and unevenly distributed. |
| stem | The stem is 85 - 106 × 6 - 10 mm, white to off-white, becoming faintly brownish from handling, narrowing upward, not flaring at the very top, with white to grayish flocculence in upper half, with appressed silky patches below that become dark fibrils on the pallid ground color. The very base base of the stipe has a white cottony surface and short white hyphal "cables" that look like (false) roots. The stem's flesh is white, not changing when cut or bruised, hollow, and lacks a skirt. At the stem's base, the volva breaks up into loose patches that are easily left in the soil when the mushroom is collected, the fragments are pale gray to gray, not plentiful and/or appear as a dark gray ring above a white, "strangulate" zone. |
| odor/taste | There is no noticeable odor in fresh material. The taste is said to be nut-like. |
| spores | The spores measure (7.7-) 9.4 - 12.0 (-14.2) × (7.0-) 8.8 - 11.2 (-13.5) µm and are globose to subglobose and inamyloid. Clamps are not found at bases of basidia. |
| discussion | This mushroom is very often (incorrectly) called A. ceciliae, which is a strictly European taxon originally described from England. |
| brief editors | RET |
| name | Amanita borealisorora | ||||||||
| author | Tulloss nom. prov. | ||||||||
| name status | nomen provisorum | ||||||||
| english name | "Northern Sister Ringless Amanita" | ||||||||
| etymology | borealis, "northern" + sorora, "sister"; hence, "northern sister"—carrying forward the practice of naming taxa similar to A. ceciliae as sisters of Cecilia. | ||||||||
| GenBank nos. |
Due to delays in data processing at GenBank, some accession numbers may lead to dead pages.
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| intro |
Olive text indicates a specimen that has not been
thoroughly examined (for example, for microscopic details) and marks other places in the text
where data is missing or uncertain. The following is based on original research of R. E. Tulloss. | ||||||||
| pileus | 55 - 85 mm wide, pallid brown with umbrinous tint (5B3 or 6C3—a washed out brown, not tan) or grayish brown with disc browner , becoming darker with age, sometimes pale cream over marginal striations, broadly campanulate, tacky to subviscid, subshiny to slightly metallic; context white, sordid under pileipellis in disc, not changing when cut or bruised, up to 3.5 mm thick over stipe, thinning evenly for half distance to margin, then a membrane; margin striate (0.2 - 0.4R), nonappendiculate; universal veil as warts and small or (occasionally) large patches with pallid edges, whitish at first, then gray to grayish brown to dark gray to blackish gray, floccose-subpulverulent, detersile; pileipellis apparently very thin. | ||||||||
| lamellae | free, lacking decurrent line on stipe apex, close to subcrowded, off-white (near stipe) and sordid (near pileus margin) or entirely sordid white in mass, sordid white (near stipe) and pale gray (near pileus margin) or entirely sordid white in side view, graying with age, 7.5 - 10 mm broad, with white or whitish and minutely flocculose edge; lamellulae truncate, of widely varying lengths, plentiful, unevenly distributed. | ||||||||
| stipe | 85 - 157 × 6 - 13.5 mm, white to off-white, becoming faintly brownish from handling, narrowing upward, infrequently somewhat flattened, not flaring at apex, with white to grayish flocculence in upper half, with appressed silky patches below becoming dark fibrils on pallid ground, very base with white appressed cottony surface and short white pseudorhizae; context white, not changing when cut or bruised, hollow, with central cylinder up to 7.5 mm wide containing sparse white cottony matter; exannulate; universal veil in loose patches easily left in soil, located against stipe up to 10- - 45 mm from base, pale gray to gray, not plentiful or as one or more friable patches or (often) as a dark gray ring above a white, "strangulate" zone. | ||||||||
| odor/taste | Odor none. Taste lacking or pleasant or slightly nut-like. | ||||||||
| macrochemical tests |
Spot test for laccase (syringaldazine): negative throughout the basidiome. Spot test for tyrosinase: rapidly positive throughout the basidiome except for scattered spots on lamellae. Test voucher: Tulloss 8-30-98-C. | ||||||||
| pileipellis | ? µm thick, with strongly gelatinized surface; filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae 1.8 - 7.2 µm wide, dominantly subradially oriented, densely packed, light yellowish brown in mass; vascular hyphae 1.8 - 16.5 µm wide, rather common, prominent, yellow to yellow-brown, including occasional coils and twists, with irregular outline, infrequently branching. | ||||||||
| lamella trama | bilateral; wcs = 30 - 55 µm; subhymenial base containing inflated cells (e.g., 24 × 21 µm, thin-walled, subglobose to elongate), with angle of divergence ?; filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae ? µm wide, ?, with inflated intercalary segments (e.g., 54 × 21 µm) in central stratum, with subhymenial base including uninflated and partially inflated hyphal segments, and inflated intercalary cells dominantly divergent at angles between 30° and 60°, with the divergent inflated cells subfusiform to ellipsoid to ovoid to broadly clavate (up to 82 × 33 µm, but most smaller than 55 × 28 µm) and with walls up to ? µm thick; divergent, terminal inflated cells not observed; vascular hyphae ? µm wide, ?. | ||||||||
| subhymenium | wst-near = 15 - 40 µm; wst-far = 35 - 60 µm; consisting of 3± inflated cells or uninflated or partially inflated hyphal segments arranged in a branching structure with those nearest bases of basidia having major diameter perpendicular to central stratum, with basidia arising (terminally or laterally) from uninflated or partially inflated short hyphal segments or (terminally) from branched elements or from small inflated cells. | ||||||||
| basidia | 40 - 69 × 11.6 - 16.5 µm, 4-sterigmate; clamps not observed. | ||||||||
| universal veil | On pileus: with all elements eventually collapsing and gelatinizing; filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae 2.2 - 7.8 µm wide, plentiful to locally dominant, loosely interwoven, frequently branching, often with yellowish (sometimes rather sordid yellow) subrefractive walls, with walls thin to (often) 0.5 µm thick; inflated cells hyaline, colorless to (more commonly) pale brown at first (brown in mass), then colorless to pale yellowish to pale grayish to pale brown to yellowish brown to brown, plentiful to locally dominant [in immature specimen (Stephenson 93-04), strongly dominant], terminal, singly or (occasionally) in chains of two, globose to subglobose to subpyriform to ovoid to ellipsoid to broadly ellipsoid to broadly clavate to clavate to peanut-shaped, up to 64 × 52 µm (but with major diameter rarely > 55 µm), with walls thin or up to 1.0 µm thick (not easily noted once gelatinization begins); vascular hyphae very infrequent or absent, 2.8 - 6.3 µm wide, otherwise like those of pileipellis. From ring on stipe base: as on pileus, except having slightly larger proportion of filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae and somewhat smaller inflated cells. From patch on stipe: as on pileus, with inflated cells up to 66 × 56 µm. | ||||||||
| stipe context | longitudinally acrophysalidic; filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae ? µm wide, ?; acrophysalides ?; vascular hyphae 6.3 - 10.5 µm wide, branching, common (at least near surface). | ||||||||
| partial veil | absent. | ||||||||
| anatomical figures | |||||||||
| basidiospores | [80/4/4] (7.7-) 9.4 - 12.0 (-14.2) × (7.0-) 8.8 - 11.2 (-13.5) µm, (L = 10.0 - 11.0 µm; L’ = 10.5 µm; W = 9.3 - 10.5 µm; W’ = 10.0 µm; Q = (1.0-) 1.02 - 1.11 (-1.12); Q = 1.04 - 1.07; Q’ = 1.06), hyaline, thin-walled, smooth, inamyloid, globose to subglobose, adaxially flattened; apiculus sublateral to nearly lateral, cylindric, prominent (up to 3.2 × 3.0 µm); contents monoguttulate with numerous small additional granules; white in deposit. | ||||||||
| ecology | Solitary to subgregarious. Maine: In dark loam and leaf litter of mixed woods with common Abies. Massachusetts: At 155± m elev. New Jersey: In wet loam of mixed deciduous forest including Acer, Betula, Carpinus caroliniana, Carya ovata, Fagus grandifolia, Liquidambar styraciflua, and Quercus. New York: At 500± m elev. In leaf litter of open, old growth forest including Acer, F. grandifolia, Betula, Prunus, and Tsuga canadensis. Virginia: In moist loamy clay of road bank under Q. alba, Q. sp. (of scarlet oak/pin oak group), Pinus strobus, P. virginiana, and Cornus florida. West Virginia: At [990 -] 1220 m elev. In hardwood forest or in forest of mixed Quercus spp. and other hardwoods or in old growth Abies forest with Betula alleghaniensis or in wet soil of mixed forest including T. canadensis, F. grandifolia, Picea rubens, Betula, Acer, etc. | ||||||||
| material examined |
U.S.A.: CONNECTICUT—New London Co. - Colchester, Day Pond St. Pk. [41°33'25" N/ 72°25'06" W, 134 m], 23.ix.2000 Leon Shernoff s.n. [Tulloss 9-23-00-C] (RET 319-4), 24.viii.2007 Jeff Miller s.n. [Tulloss 8-24-07-J] (RET 440-4). Tolland Co. - Gay City St. Pk. [41°43’23” N/ 72°26’38” W, 209 m], 31.viii.1997 R. E. Tulloss 8-31-97-Na (RET 268-4), -Nb (RET 268-3); Hebron, The Hemlocks Nature Educ. Ctr. [41°37’11” N/ 72°23’22” W, 145-160 m], 21.ix.1996 Benjamin A. Maleson s.n. [Tulloss 9-21-96-F] (RET 250-8). Middlesex Co. - E. Haddam, Devil’s Hopyard St. Pk. [41°28’32” N/ 72°20’25” W, 72 m], 24.viii.2007 R. E. Tulloss 8-24-07-I (RET 439-4), -L (RET 440-3); Meshomasic St. For., 19.ix.1998 Sarah Tulloss & “Michaela” s.n. [Tulloss 9-19-98-B] (RET ??).
MAINE—Penobscot Co. - Orono, prop. Jim Hinds & Orono Land Trust, 11.viii.2007 Jancet Eckardt s.n. [Tulloss 8-11-07-B] (RET 409-9).
MASSACHUSETTS—Worcester Co. - Worcester, Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary [42°14'29" N/ 71°46'46" W, 153 m], 13.viii.1993 Joe Arnold s.n. [Tulloss 8-13-93-A] (RET 095-8).
MINNESOTA—Beltrami Co. - ca. Blackduck, Chippewa Nat. For., Meadow Lk., 25.viii.1995 participant NAMA1995 s.n. [Tulloss 8-25-95-B] (RET 156-2); Chippewa Nat. For., Forest Tr. 3862 (Rt. 39), 25.viii.1995 D. J. McLaughlin s.n. [Tulloss 8-25-95-C] (RET 156-5); Movil Maze Ski Area, 26.viii.1995 participant NAMA1995 s.n. [Tulloss 8-26-95-D] (RET 155-9).
NEW JERSEY—Burlington Co. - Brendan T. Byrne St. Pk. | ||||||||
| discussion |
Blaaaa... The following figures compare the spore data of the present species with those of A. ceciliae and A. sororcula. Stephenson 93-04 is a fully expanded basidiome that had not begun to produce spores when dried; however, its anatomy fits very well with that of the mature specimens of this species. In keys, correspondence, and Tulloss et al. (1995), this entity has been called "Amanita sp. V3." See also Amanita sp. N34. | ||||||||
| citations | —R. E. Tulloss | ||||||||
| editors | RET | ||||||||
Information to support the viewer in reading the content of "technical" tabs can be found here.
| name | Amanita borealisorora |
| bottom links | [ Keys & Checklists ] |
| name | Amanita borealisorora |
| bottom links | [ Keys & Checklists ] |
Spore data sets and their composite
Each spore data set is intended to comprise a set of measurements from a single specimen made by a single observer; and explanations prepared for this site talk about specimen-observer pairs associated with each data set. Combining more data into a single data set is non-optimal because it obscures observer differences (which may be valuable for instructional purposes, for example) and may obscure instances in which a single collection inadvertently contains a mixture of taxa.
Text and User-Generated Sporographs are published under the Creative Commons License.
All other images are © 2011, Rodham E. Tulloss unless otherwise indicated in context.
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