Amanita alliacea

The cap of Amanita alliacea is about 80 mm wide, convex, white, dry, shiny, with an appendiculate, nonsulcate margin.  The cap is decorated with scattered, vague, thin, felted-subpulverulent, white patches of volva.

The gills are rather crowded, adnate to nearly free, narrow, and white.  The short gills are truncate to obliquely truncate to attenuate.

The stem is 100 × 20 mm, tapering upward, solid, white, floccose, subannulate, with a volval limb collapsed against the base of the stem.

The spores measure (12-) 13 - 14.5 × 4 - 4.5 µm and are amyloid and bacilliform.  Clamps are absent at bases of basidia.

The type of A. alliacea was collected under oak; other collections were made in "mixed woods."

This species was described from Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A.  Bas (1969) says that the two Murrill collections (including the type) that he examined did not conform completely with the original description.  Moreover, Bas states that his study showed the odor of garlic was the only character separating the material he revised from A. roanokensis Coker.  However, Murrill had reported A. alliacea as very common in the Gainesville area.  Bas, therefore, felt that he should leave the species standing for the time being since Murrill apparently had familiarity with it, but had never suggested that it was the same as A. watsoniana (Murrill's name for A. roanokensis).—R. E. 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.