(for some reason I didn’t see new comments in this observation).

I really hope to find an “examinable” specimen this summer – last season there was a drought and there were very few Amanitas, and in 2009 it was rainy and cold and the specimen I tried to save turned into goo in a matter of a couple of hours.

Pine-loving Blushers often get even more novinupta-like here (and in European Russia, too). Here are 2 links to pictures of a very pale and shaggy blusher taken in a pine forest in Kirov region, near Moscow (3000 km W from here), by Vladimir Kapitonov.

http://jpe.ru/1/max/100310/15hny0689n.jpg
http://jpe.ru/1/max/100310/25hny0689n.jpg

I don’t remember ever seeing yellow shades in the veil. But one thing for sure is that there are yellow-veiled blushers in Russia to the East from the Ural mountains, Nina Filippova of the UgraSU sent me a 2008 specimen found near the city of Perm’ of what she’d identified as A. rubescens var. annulosulfurea. There are no pictures of it unfortunately but I’ll post microphotos when I’ve examined it microscopically.

P.S. Debbie, the foray idea is very tempting :) You’re welcome any time (now’s probably not the best time but we could go skiing and look for conks anyway, lol).

P.P.S. by the way – the UgraSU university in Khanty-Mansiysk has a field station which is basically a hut in the middle of taiga with solar and wind generators, internet access, sauna, neat zeiss microscopes… and not a single person within the 20km radius. The guys there are really interested in “promoting international cooperation” which means that if are a researcher and/or love nature you’re welcome there anytime, and they’d love to do joint research projects in botany, mycology, bog research, soil studies, etc. Or you can just come there and go on long walks in the woods and look for mushrooms. Seriously. They’ll help with getting a visa and everything. Eef Arnolds went there last summer and he seemed to have enjoyed his stay :)
(sorry for the shameless advertising, that place is just really great).

did it show a yellow underside to its partial veil, an occasional characteristic of the eastern NA form, Amanita rubescens var. alba sensu Coker? We don’t see this in our Western Blusher.

Russia, of course, is not Europe, which does sometimes share similar fungi with Eastern NA. There could well be some similarities between our west coast mycota and that of Russia, just a former land bridge away!

Your recent posting of an apparent Russian collection of Tubaria punicea, thought to be only on the West Coast of NA also suggests this possibility.

It sure looks like our novinupta macroscopically. Here are pages of similar forms, right here on MO:

http://mushroomobserver.org/observer/observation_search?pattern=amanita+novinupta

I look forward to seeing your microscopy on this curious blushing amanita.

rubescens. When I first saw the drawing, I thought “A. rubescens var. alba”, which I have seen here in PA. But as Rod points out on the Amanita site, there are some macro differences between our pale rubescens and this Euro variety.

Thank you for your contributions here, I enjoy your observations!

you are a fine artist as well as a scientist. :)

Your amanita depicted certainly more closely resembles our California Amanita novinupta rather than the European rubescens or the Eastern US ameri-rubescens.

I look forward to seeing the microscopy.

Very nice drawing!

It’s a perfect example of one of the rubescens forms I have seen in Sweden, the more common one that I usually find in conifer woods.
The other one, which I have only seen in hardwood areas, is usually sturdier and with a darker brownish cap, and it seems like a more southern form/species.

I don’t think this is the western american A. novinupta. There are detailed descriptions here:
“http://www.amanitaceae.org/?Amanita novinupta