Created: 2008-06-22 09:47:26

By: Rod Tulloss (ret)

Summary: Gross stuff..

Debbie,
One of the characters that I use for A. spreta is a gray (or graying) partial veil. We don’t have that character in these pictures. Amanita spreta can vary in cap color from nearly white to brown-gray or gray-brown. The “warm brown” of these pictures suggests that we may have something else. An undescribed species would not be a surprise…at all. I still find this hard to say, but the species would fall in sect. Caesareae. Microscopically, A. spreta is closer to A. caesarea than it is to the Slender Caesars of eastern North America or the robust False Caesars of western North America. The cap of A. spreta is thick and rather fleshy like A. caesarea (Europe and Mediterranean region) and A. basii (Mexico). It has rather short marginal striations perhaps shorter than does the mushroom in Ron’s photos. Ron did you get an impression of the thickness of the cap on this critter?

Very best,

Rod