When: 2014-01-26
Collection location: Piste 2, Vohimana Forest, Andasibe Commune, Moramanga District, Alaotra-Mangora Region, Madagascar [Click for map]
18.9284°S 48.5056°E 850m [Click for map]
Notes:
“We would like to inform you that your collection DSN062 from Madagascar yielded a nrITS sequence that puts it in the Section Phalloideae. We blasted it against our database of sequences and the closest match was to Amanita marmorata from Australia although the match wasn’t great (4% difference). Thank you for this material…” -Naomi and RET
Habitat: Madagascar lowland forest
Substrate: in soil beside trail
Collectors: D. Newman, E. Randrianjohany, R. Letsara, V. Razafindrahaja, Lesabotsy
Collection #: DSN062
Species Lists
Images
1/6 sec, f/8, ISO 100
Focus Stacked with Zerene Stacker (2 Images)
1/6 sec, f/8, ISO 100
Focus Stacked with Zerene Stacker (3 Images)
1/6 sec, f/8, ISO 100
Focus Stacked with Zerene Stacker (6 Images)
1/13 sec, f/8, ISO 100
Focus Stacked with Zerene Stacker (4 Images)
0.3 sec, f/11, ISO 100
Focus Stacked with Zerene Stacker (3 Images)
User’s votes are weighted by their contribution to the site (log10 contribution). In addition, the user who created the observation gets an extra vote. | |||||||||
Vote | Score | Weight | Users | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
I’d Call It That | 3.0 | 6.64 | 1 | (myxomop) | |||||
Promising | 2.0 | 0.00 | 0 | ||||||
Could Be | 1.0 | 0.00 | 0 | ||||||
Doubtful | -1.0 | 4.49 | 1 | ||||||
Not Likely | -2.0 | 0.00 | 0 | ||||||
As If! | -3.0 | 0.00 | 0 | ||||||
Overall Score sum(score * weight) / (total weight + 1) |
1.27 | 42.41% |
User’s votes are weighted by their contribution to the site (log10 contribution). In addition, the user who created the observation gets an extra vote. | |||||||||
Vote | Score | Weight | Users | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
I’d Call It That | 3.0 | 0.00 | 0 | ||||||
Promising | 2.0 | 4.49 | 1 | ||||||
Could Be | 1.0 | 0.00 | 0 | ||||||
Doubtful | -1.0 | 0.00 | 0 | ||||||
Not Likely | -2.0 | 0.00 | 0 | ||||||
As If! | -3.0 | 0.00 | 0 | ||||||
Overall Score sum(score * weight) / (total weight + 1) |
1.64 | 54.53% |
Comments
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The sequences have been submitted to GenBank, the flat (output) files have been sent to us for review. We have OK’d the release of the sequences. The GB accession numbers are KX185611 and KX185612.
Thanks for the opportunity to work with this material.
Very best,
Rod

Thanks very much for your email. It is good to know what is unknown as well as what is known.
Very best,
Rod

To respond to some of your questions via email, I regretfully did not record an odor for this specimen, nor did I section it. Therefore any fresh notes on either stipe context or smell for this collection will have to be speculative at best. I typically record odor when it is distinctive, but I don’t wish to assume that the absence of any notes on odor in this case is proof of there being none. I can only attribute the lack of a cross section photograph to my uneasiness about damaging singletons, a silly habit from which this frustratingly underdocumented observation has successfully freed me, once and for all.
I always have a copy of this on hand with me in whatever country I collect, but seldom have the time to use it for anything more than a teaching tool to show how comprehensively a collection can (and sometimes must) be documented. Funny enough, the one time I did fill it out was for these:
Observation 229912
Observation 8764
which turned out to not be in Amanitaceae at all!
I wish I had the time/daylight/labor force to do justice to not only the things I photograph and collect, but the things I have to leave behind. The middle ground I’ve decided to strike between breadth of collecting and depth of documentation is indeed a compromise, perhaps never more so than on this trip to Madagascar, where my primary focus was as a research assistant and photographer to Jackie Shay for her graduate field work on Marasmius. The collecting of non-marasmoid fungi was more or less incidental to that.
Shortcomings notwithstanding, it brings me great joy to see this material move along the taxonomic food chain, from Ranomafana National Park to the Herbarium Amanitarum Rooseveltensis. This is why I collect fungi.

Based on the original description of Patouillard and the drawings of spores in E.-J. Gilbert’s “Amanitaceae” (1940-41), I think this material must be very close to Amanita alliiodora and would not know how to prove otherwise from dried material.
I am working with your photographs and the part of the dried specimen that you gave me to expand and modernize the description of this species.
In 1938, an article was published indicating that the indigenous people in the region in which the species was collected a second time believed it to be poisonous. They were probably correct in that the two taxa with the most similar “proposed fungal barcode” genes (nrITS) include A. marmorata, which is known to contain amatoxins and A. sp-Kerala01, which is very similar to A. marmorata genetically and morphologically.
This is a very cool find, Danny.
Very best,
Rod
Could you let us know the dimensions of the graph paper (what size the squares are) in your photo? We would like to calculate the rough dimensions of the fruiting body.
Thanks for the great pictures!
Naomi

R

Madagascar. They were all described by Patouillard: A. alliodora, A. murinacea, and A. thejoleuca. All the descriptive data has been transcribed (in English) on the WAO site.
I think one of these could fit your material. :) We will have to do some spore measurements.
Very best,
Rod

Do you remember an odor associated with this mushroom?
Very best,
Rod
and thank you, Rod, for taking an interest. This is why I do this. It’s gratifying to see these images and collections work their way through the taxonomic food chain.