name | Amanita crocea |
name status | nomen acceptum |
author | (Quél. in Bourd.) Singer ex Singer |
english name | "Saffron Ringless Amanita" |
images | |
cap | The cap of Amanita crocea is usually free of volval remnants, 40 - 100 mm wide, umbonate at maturity, with a distinctly striate margin; it is saffron orange (or a little browner than that) in the center when fresh and paler at the margin. |
gills |
The gills are free, close to subcrowded, cream in mass (sometimes with a slight salmon or pinkish reflection, and 2 - 3± mm broad; the short gills are truncate, of varying length, and often infrequent. |
stem |
The stem is 85 - 230 × 7 - 14 mm, exannulate, cream to yellow-cream to pale orange or concolorous with (but paler than) the color near the margin of the cap, with decoration of paler fibrils in a "flame" pattern, with the decoration later becoming orange or brown-orange (darker than the underlying stipe surface), and with a membranous sack-like volva at the base. The external and internal surfaces of the 30 - 65 mm tall volval sack commonly take on orangish cream, pale peach, pale salmon buff, or brownish orange stains; the exterior may also develop rust colored spots; the exterior surface is originally white or whitish. Spot tests with phenol on the stem of this species produce a "rouge fuschine" rather than the usual brown or chocolate brown seen in amanitas. The reaction to syringaldazine spot testing for laccase on a cross-section of a specimen produces two positive dots at the very base of the stem (more ruby than the magenta or lavender usual in amanitas containing laccase—such as shown in a photograph of A. subsolitaria (Murrill) Murrill) of section Lepidella. |
odor/taste | The odor is faintly fungoid or absent. |
spores |
The spores measure (8.0-) 9.4 - 11.8 (-18.8) × (7.5-) 8.5 - 11.0 (-16.0) µm and are globose to subglobose (infrequently broadly ellipsoid) and inamyloid. Clamps are not present at bases of basidia. |
discussion |
Amanita crocea is widely distributed in Europe in association with aspen, larch, pine, spruce, or birch. While this species' name is applied to collections made in the Americas, no such collection examined by me has ever proven to be the European species. There are at least two New World taxon (still to be described) to which the European name has been incorrectly applied. A short key-fragment is available that may be useful in distinguishing A. crocea, A. flavescens (E. J. Gilbert & S. Lund.) Contu, A. romagnesiana Tulloss, and A. subnudipes (Romagn.) Tulloss as well as the species most phenetically similar to A. fulva (Schaeff.) Fr. Not included in that key is A. ochraceopallida Contu (known from Italy), which is very similar to A. flavescens.—R. E. Tulloss |
brief editors | RET |
name | Amanita crocea | ||||||||
author | (Quél. in Bourd.) Singer ex Singer. 1951 ["1949"]. Lilloa 22: 386. | ||||||||
name status | nomen acceptum | ||||||||
english name | "Saffron Ringless Amanita" | ||||||||
synonyms |
[Synonymy per Fraiture (1993. Op. Bot. Belg 5: 80) with alterations as noted.]
≡Amanita vaginata var. crocea Quél. in Bourd. 1898. Rev. Sci. Bourbonnais Centr. France 11(123): 52.
≡Amanitopsis crocea (Quél. in Bourd.) E.-J. Gilbert. 1928. Bull. Trimestriel Soc. Mycol. France 44(2): 161.
≡Amanita vaginata f. crocea (Quél. in Bourd.) Veselý. 1933. Ann. Mycol. 31(4): 278.
≡Amanita vaginata subsp. fulva var. crocea (Quél. in Bourd.) Konrad & Maubl. 1937. Icones Select. Fung. 6: 33.
≡Amanita crocea (Quél. in Bourd.) Singer. ??.
=Amanita fulva sensu Secr. 1833. Mycogr. Suisse 1: 37, no. 35.
≡Amanita vaginata var. [e] fissa f. [dd] Mlady nom. inval. 1838. ??: 32. [Missing epithet. ??]
?=Amanita vaginata var. aurantiaca Grelet. 1923. Amateur Champ. 9(4): 52. [per Fraiture (1993. op. cit.: 82), but also see comments regarding possible synonymy in the description of Amanita subnudipes.] non Amanita aurantiaca Lam. in Lam. & Poir. 1783. Encycl. Méthod. Bot. 1: 111. [=Amanita caesarea (Scop. : Fr.) Pers.]
?=Amanitopsis vaginata var. cinnabarina Killerm. 1931. Denkschr. Bayer. Bot. Ges. Regensburg 18(neue Folg. 12): 11. [per Fraiture (1993. op. cit.: 82), but also see comments regarding possible synonymy with Amanita romagnesiana Tulloss. The editors of this site owe a great debt to Dr. Cornelis Bas whose famous cigar box files of Amanita nomenclatural information gathered over three or more decades were made available to RET for computerization and make up the lion's share of the nomenclatural information presented on this site. | ||||||||
MycoBank nos. | 115109 | ||||||||
GenBank nos. |
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revisions | Tulloss (herein) | ||||||||
intro | The following is based on original research of R. E. Tulloss. | ||||||||
pileus | PILEUS: 43 - 100 mm wide, “aurore vif ou safrané” to brownish salmon-ochraceous (between 7.5YR 7/6 and 7.5YR 7/8) to brownish ochraceous orange (5-7.5YR 6/8) to ochraceous orange to orange-ochraceous yellow (7.5YR 7/8 to 10YR 8/8) to more orange than 4A4 to more yellow than 10YR 8/6, with darker colors over disk (e.g, brownish orange or 10YR 8/6 or 5-7.5YR 6/8) and in concentrically arranged dash-like markings near disk (and more sparsely elsewhere), unchanging when bruised, colors often quite bright, very broadly obtusely conic with straight or slightly concave sides to convex to subplanar to slightly concave in age, subumbonate (at least at first), tacky to subviscid, glabrous, not fibrillose under lens; context very pale orangish white, a little watersoaked in disk, unchanging when bruised, 2± mm thick at stipe, thinning regularly for 85±% of radius, then membranous to margin; margin striate (0.15 - 0.3R), nonappendiculate; universal veil absent. | ||||||||
lamellae | free or with a very thin connecting line, with a very faint decurrent line on stipe apex (lens), subcrowded to crowded, cream in mass sometimes with slight salmon or salmon-pinkish reflection ("offrent à la fin une teinte aurore crème"), slightly sordid white to pale cream-white to white in side view, unchanging when cut or bruised, 2 - 3+ mm broad, with minutely fimbriate edge sometimes roughly concolorous with stipe; lamellulae truncate, infrequent. | ||||||||
stipe | 85 - 230 × 7 - 14 mm, creamy to yellow-cream to pale orange (5A4, 7.5YR 8/4) or pale brownish salmon-buff or concolorous with (but often lighter than) outer portion of pileus, decorated with upward pointing and densely arranged narrow squamules [paler than ground at first (e.g., yellowish white to salmon-cream), then orange-ochraceous or darker orange than ground on tips ("jonquille doré"), becoming darker orange from handling], sometimes remaining white within volval sac and just above its limbs, sometimes decorated near apex with slightly striate pulverulent layer, narrowing upward, not flaring at apex; context concolorous with ground color to pale cream (near base) to pale orange-buff to pale salmon cream (with pigmentation often stronger nearest stipe surface), unchanging when cut or bruised, concolorous in larva tunnels, stuffed with white cottony material sometimes with hollow chambers, with central cylinder 3± mm wide; exannulate; universal veil as saccate volva with two limbs, membranous, ample, smooth, leathery, exterior entirely white or white below and white to pale peach above or pale cream or white with slightly rusty spots, inner surface cream to light orange cream to pale salmon-buff to salmon-buff, 32 - 65 mm from base of stipe to highest point on limb, up to 23± mm wide, with limb up to 2± mm thick, confluent with stipe base for about lower third of height, with limbus internus attached just above mid-height or at about point of contact with stipe (unitangent). | ||||||||
odor/taste | Odor faintly fungoid or absent. Taste not recorded. | ||||||||
macrochemical tests |
Phenol - on context, "rouge fuchsine" in 1 or 2 min. rather than the usual (in other taxa) brown or chocolate brown [Melzer as cited by Kühner and Romagnesi (1974: 414)]. Spot test for laccase (syringaldazine) - two spots (one on each side of stipe center line and more ruby than usual magenta or reddish purple reaction in other laccase-positive taxa) at very base of stipe, negative throughout remainder of basidiome. Spot test for tyrosinase (paracresol) - positive throughout basidiome, faintest in upper portion of face of lamella and in very base of stipe. Test voucher collection: Tulloss 9-4-88-I. | ||||||||
pileipellis | 100 - 240 µm thick, yellow-orange except for colorless region near surface, usually without distinct suprapellis, only gelatinized at surface or (occasionally) to depth of < 10 µm; filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae 2.0 - 7.5 µm wide, branching, loosely interwoven at surface over disc, subradially arranged toward margin, densely packed vertically; vascular hyphae 1.5 - 18.2 µm wide, scattered to locally common to common, sinuous, with frequent constrictions, locally coiling and twisting, occasionally branching, infrequently anastomosing, sordid yellow to yellow-brown to orange-brown. | ||||||||
pileus context | filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae 2.0 - 9.2 µm wide, branching, plentiful, thin-walled, sometimes constricted at septa; acrophysalides thin-walled, plentiful, fusiform to narrowly clavate to subcylindric, up to 181 × 34 µm; vascular hyphae not observed. | ||||||||
lamella trama | bilateral; wcs = (30-) 35 - 55 µm (good to very good rehydration); central stratum containing intercalary narrowly fusiform cells; subhymenial tree dominated by filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae and narrow inflated cells (e.g., 65 × 17.0 µm, sometimes in short chains) diverging at shallow angle, containing numerous filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae throughout with many segments running parallel to central stratum (at least in immature material); filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae 3.0 - 9.5 µm wide, branching, with some intercalary segments slightly inflated; divergent, terminal inflated cells not observed; vascular hyphae 4.8± µm, scattered, infrequent. | ||||||||
subhymenium | wst-near = 65 - 75 µm (30 - 45 µm with moderate rehydration); wst-far = 85 - 90 µm (40 - 70 µm with moderate rehydration); branching structure comprising uninflated and partially inflated hyphal segments and small inflated cells, including hyphal segments running subparallel to central stratum, may appear pseudoparenchymatous locally if not observed with care, with basidia arising from cells of all types. | ||||||||
basidia | 42 - 72 × 10.8 - 15.2 µm, dominantly 4-, infrequently 3- or 2-sterigmate, with sterigmata up to 8.9 × 4.0 µm; clamps not observed. | ||||||||
universal veil | On pileus: absent or as very thin layer of extensively gelatinized loops of hyphae (or, less likely, outlines of gelatinized inflated cells). On stipe base, exterior surface: loose weave of single hyphae and broad fascicles without dominant orientation, partially gelatinized at surface, < 5 hyphal diameters thick; filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae 1.5 - 9.8 µm wide, branching, occasionally with very loose coil, occasionally with yellowish walls, with walls thin or slightly thickened; vascular hyphae not observed. On stipe base, interior: filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae 1.5 - 11.6 µm wide, branching, dominating, in broad fascicles and singly, looping and occasionally giving false impression of presence of inflated cells, infrequently to commonly with yellowish subrefractive walls; inflated cells difficult to observe, apparently fragile and easily broken, thin-walled, terminal singly, subglobose to subpyriform to clavate to broadly fusiform to ovoid, up to 105 × 58 µm (mostly < 75 µm in major diameter), scattered, occasionally in small clusters; vascular hyphae rare to moderately common, 12.6 - 15.0 µm wide, branching, sinuous, sometimes with loose coils, locally tangled. On stipe base, inner surface: like interior, but gelatinized and forming thin separable layer; with numerous small subglobose gelatinized inflated cells floating in mount (from possible friable part of limbus internus or remains of pulverulence from edges of lamellae on limbus internus surface). | ||||||||
stipe context | longitudinally acrophysalidic; filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae 2.8 - 13.0 µm wide, branching, plentiful, dominating near external surface; acrophysalides up to 365 × 52 µm, plentiful, dominant away from surface, thin-walled; vascular hyphae 2.5 - 24 µm wide, infrequently coiled, locally having numerous abrupt constrictions, scattered. Cells on stipe surface: loose network of frequently branching filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae bearing small clavate terminal cells. | ||||||||
partial veil | absent in section Vaginatae. | ||||||||
lamella edge tissue | frequent and extended remains of layer up to 163 µm thick when ungelatinized (up to 80 µm thick when partially gelatinized); cells densely packed in specimen just beginning sporulation when dried, terminal singly or in short chains, easily dissociated, thin-walled, in 4 - 7± layers, subglobose to ellipsoid to broadly clavate to clavate to fusiform, up to 58 × 38 µm, becoming partially gelatinized and collapsed, with 3 - 9 strands (in side view) of filamentous, undifferentiated hyphae 3.5 - 7.2 µm wide, radially oriented, partially gelatinized, concentrated near lamella edge. | ||||||||
basidiospores | [521/27/18] (8.0-) 9.4 - 11.8 (-18.8) × (7.5-) 8.5 - 11.0 (-16.0) µm, (L = (9.8-) 10.0 - 11.1 (-11.3) µm; L’ = 10.6 µm; W = (8.9-) 9.1 - 10.5 µm; W’ = 9.7 µm; Q = (1.01-) 1.04 - 1.16 (-1.28); Q = 1.07 - 1.10 (-1.11); Q’ = 1.10), hyaline, colorless, thin-walled, smooth, inamyloid, cyanophilic, globose to subglobose, infrequently broadly ellipsoid, adaxially flattened; apiculus sublateral, cylindric to narrowly truncate-conic, proportionately rather small; contents mono- to multiguttulate; in deposit. | ||||||||
ecology | Solitary to subgregarious. Belgium: In plantation of Picea abies (L.) Karst. on acid soil (talus of broken schist) on slope above stream or in "Pulminario-Carpinetum" or in garden with Betula or in deciduous forest. Czech Republic: At 300± m elev. In grass under Betula on hill with S exposure. Germany: In Picea forest. Italy: At 1200 m elev. Under Picea abies and Larix decidua. Sweden: At 25± m elev. In deciduous forest clearing or in meadow with Betula and young Populus tremula L. or in mixed deciduous woods (mainly Quercus and Betula, but also Corylus and Fraxinus) in dry shallow valley with acid or neutral soil. Scotland, U.K.: Under Betula pendula Roth about 20-25 years old. Wales, U.K.: In mixed deciduous woods including Betula, Alnus, and Fraxinus on damp clayey soil in area of numerous springs. | ||||||||
material examined | BELGIUM: HAINAUT—Charleroi - Jumet, 14.viii.1974 S. Adriaens s.n. [P. Heinemann 5678] (BR 029902,26). LIÈGE—Malmedy - Vallée du Ru du Pouhon, btwn. Xhoffraix and Longfaye, Béversé [IFBL G8.34.11], 28.vii.1977 A. Fraiture s.n. (BR 030127,57). NAMUR—Couvin - Couvin, 26.vii.1970 A. Marchal 70.120 (BR 029903,27). Gesves - Gesves, 31.vii.1971 P. Heinemann 5071 (BR 029901,25). LUXEMBOURG—Etalle - Bois de la Voline, 8.viii.1991 A. Fraiture 1368 (BR 009787,87). St. Hubert - unkn. loc., 1.vii.1990 P. Heinemann 8233 (BR 006756,63). CZECH REPUBLIC: PRAGUE—Kinsky Park, 3.ix.1981 Th. W. Kuyper 1708 (L). GERMANY: BADEN-WURTTEMBERG—Schwarzwald, W of Gutach, Scheibeneck, 15.ix.1980 W. Jülich s.n. (L). NORDHEIN-WESTPHALEN—20± km SSE of Detmold, Langeland, 11.ix.1972 G. A. de Vries s.n. [C. Bas 5894] (herb. de Vries; L). ITALY: BOLZANO—Dobbiaco, Lago di Dobbiaco [1200 m], 13.vii.1997 Marco Floriani s.n. (RET 270-5). NETHERLANDS: GELDERLAND—Rheden, Kruishorst estate and Heiderust cemetery,10.x.1992 Th. v. d. Molen s.n. (L). SWEDEN: HALLAND—45 km S of Göteborg, along coast, 8.vii.1979 C. Bas 7466 (L). SMÅLAND—Femsjö, Bösseberg, 2.viii.1981 M. Moser 81/123 (IB); Femsjö, LöjenS s, 14.ix.1994 M. Moser 94/255 (IB). SWITZERLAND: ? (LUG 3982). U.K.: ENGLAND—Wiltshire Co. - Marlborough, Sevenoaks For., 2.x.1977 Derek A. Reid s.n. (NY; RET 143-6). SCOTLAND—Highlands & Islands Reg. - Aigas Field Centre, 4.ix.1988 Roy Watling s.n. [Tulloss 9-4-88-I] (RET 141-5). Perthshire - Standing Stone btwn. Kirkmichael & Ballintuim, 18.viii.1973 H. D. Thiers 31267 (SFSU). WALES—South Glamorgan - 5 km N of Cardiff, Parc Cefn Onn, 13.ix.1973 C. Bas 6121 (L). Mid-Glamorgan - 6 km NNW of Pontypridd, St. Gwynno’s For., 17.ix.1973 C. Bas 6141 (L). | ||||||||
discussion |
t.b.d. RET visited PC during the period 27 February to 6 March 1995 with one of the goals of the visit being to locate any extent original material of the present species. It was learned that a watercolor of the species made at the time of its discovery had been in the collection of PC for many years and was often shown during the annual autumn mycological exposition sponsored by the institution. However, the watercolor had disappeared sometime in the preceding decade or so. It was not found during RET's visit. It was not found on his return to PC in later years. If it is lost, then it appears that there is no original material of this species in existence. | ||||||||
citations | —R. E. Tulloss | ||||||||
editors | RET | ||||||||
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name | Amanita crocea |
bottom links | [ Keys & Checklists ] |
name | Amanita crocea |
bottom links | [ Keys & Checklists ] |
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.