| name | Amanita cokeri |
| name status | nomen acceptum |
| author | (E.-J. Gilbert & Kühner) E.-J. Gilbert |
| english name | "Coker's Lepidella" |
| images |
  1. Amanita cokeri - New Jersey Pine Barrens  2. Amanita cokeri - New York state  3. Dr. C. Bas' illustration of Amanita cokeri (1969)  4. Amanita cokeri from GSMNP ATBI, Tennessee  5. L. R. Hesler photograph of Amanita cokeri  6. L. R. Hesler photograph of Amanita cokeri |
| cap |
The cap of A. cokeri is 80 - 150 mm wide, at first hemispherical, later convex to plano-convex, white to ivory, shiny, viscid when wet, appendiculate, with a nonsulcate margin. The flesh is white, unchanging, and firm. The volva is present as rather large, adnate to detersile, white to brownish, pyramidal warts over the center. The warts decrease in size and pass gradually into a fine flocculence towards the margin, and they are easily removed by rain. The base of the warts are minutely, radially fibrillose. |
| gills |
The gills are crowded, free to narrowly adnate, broad to very broad, white with a slight yellowish or pinkish tinge, with a white, subflocculose edge. The short gills are subtruncate to attenuate. |
| stem |
The stem is 100 - 200 × 12 - 20 mm, equal or tapering upward, solid to stuffed, white, silky, and annulate. The annulus can be double (as in A. solitaria (Bull. : Fr.) Fr.) as can be seen to greater or lesser degree in the illustrations, above. Conspicuous, white to brownish, pyramidal warts or recurved scales are often arranged in circles at the base of the stem and on the top of the bulb. |
| spores | The spores measure (9.2-) 10.8 - 13.2 (-15.0) × (5.5-) 6.5 - 8.7 (-9.5) µm and are amyloid and ellipsoid to elongate. Clamps are not rare at bases of basidia. |
| discussion |
Amanita cokeri is a species of oak-pine forests in the eastern USA. It is usually odorless when young and even until maturity, although an odor in the "decaying protein" group becomes strong later in some fruiting bodies. An undescribed taxon (A. subcokeri) with a tendency to pink or reddish staining and an odor somewhat like a mix of cedar wood and burnt sugar (by RET's nose) can be confused with A. cokeri. The center of distribution of the latter taxon is apparently more northerly (common in the New Jersey Pine Barrens where A. cokeri is relatively rare). Amanita cokeri is one of the North American taxa that has been incorrectly referred to the European A. solitaria. The species called "A. cokeri" by California authors is a very different taxon. Among other differences, the western taxon lacks the distinctive annulus, bulb, and recurved scales on the bulb seen in the eastern species. For comparison to taxa most closely related to A. cokeri, see A. eijii Zhu L. Yang, A. japonica Hongo ex Bas, A. solitaria, and A. timida Corner & Bas. These taxa are members of Bas' stirps Solitaria.—R. E. Tulloss |
| brief editors | RET |
| name | Amanita cokeri | ||||||||
| author | (E.-J. Gilbert & Kühner) E.-J. Gilbert. 1941. Iconogr. Mycol. (Milan) 27, suppl. (2): 372. [Misapplication.] | ||||||||
| name status | nomen acceptum | ||||||||
| english name | "Coker's Lepidella" | ||||||||
| synonyms |
≡Lepidella cokeri E.-J. Gilbert in E.-J. Gilbert & Kühner. 1928. Bull. Trimestriel Soc. Mycol. France 44: 151.
≡Aspidella cokeri (E.-J. Gilbert & Kühner) E.-J. Gilbert. 1940. Iconogr. Mycol. (Milan) 27, suppl. (1): 79, tab. 48 (fig. 6).
=Amanita solitaria sensu Coker. 1917. J. Elisha Mitchell Scient. Soc. 33(1/2): 68, pl. 45-47. 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. | 355702, 487317, 284319 | ||||||||
| GenBank nos. |
Due to delays in data processing at GenBank, some accession numbers may lead to unreleased (pending) pages.
These pages will eventually be made live, so try again later.
| ||||||||
| holotypes | NCU | ||||||||
| revisions | Bas. 1969. Persoonia 5: 390, figs. 99-101. | ||||||||
| intro |
The following text may make multiple use of each data field. The field may contain magenta text presenting data from a type study and/or revision of other original material cited in the protolog of the present taxon. Macroscopic descriptions in magenta are a combination of data from the protolog and additional observations made on the exiccata during revision of the cited original material. The same field may also contain black text, which is data from a revision of the present taxon (including non-type material and/or material not cited in the protolog). Paragraphs of black text will be labeled if further subdivision of this text is appropriate. Olive text indicates a specimen that has not been thoroughly examined (for example, for microscopic details) and marks other places in the text where data is missing or uncertain. The following material not directly from (Bas 1969) is based on original research of R. E. Tulloss. | ||||||||
| pileus | Bas (1969): 80 - 150 mm wide, white to ivory, at first hemipheric, later convex to plano-convex, shiny, viscid when moist; context white, unchanging, firm; margin nonsulcate, appendiculate; universal veil as pyramidal warts, large (up to 4 mm high), white to brown, adnate to detersile, "decreasing in size and passing gradually into a fine flocculence toward margin," with "bases of warts minutely radially fibrillose." | ||||||||
| lamellae | Bas (1969): free to narrowly adnate, crowded, white with slight yellowish or pinkish tinge, broad to very broad, with white subflocculose edge; lamellulae subtruncate to attenuate. | ||||||||
| stipe | Bas (1969): 120 - 200 × 12 - 20 mm, white, cylindric or narrowing upward, silky; bulb large, fusiform, rooting, up to 50 mm wide; context solid to stuffed, white, firm, unchanging; partial veil apical, pendent, membranous, white, ample, double, striate above, fibrillose-lacerate and (often) with many recurved scale below; universal veil as rows of pyramidal warts or as irregular small warts on tips of recurved scales on lower stipe and upper part of bulb. | ||||||||
| odor/taste | Odor none until basidiome over mature. Taste not recorded. | ||||||||
| macrochemical tests |
none recorded. | ||||||||
| pileipellis | Bas (1969): distinctly gelatinized, golden yellow in alkaline solution; filamentous hyphae 2 - 7 μm, interwoven; vascular hyphae present. | ||||||||
| pileus context | not described. | ||||||||
| lamella trama | Bas (1969): bilateral. | ||||||||
| subhymenium | Bas (1969): ramose to subcellular. | ||||||||
| basidia | Bas (1969): 55 - 75 × 10 - 13 μm, 4-sterigmate; clamps present. | ||||||||
| universal veil | Bas (1969): On pileus: filamentous hyphae 3 - 10 μm wide, rather abundant in upper part of warts, very abundant in lower part; inflated cells abundant, globose to ellipsoid to subclavate, 20 - 80 × 15 - 55 μm, terminal in more or less erect chains; vascular hyphae not uncommon. On stipe: not described. | ||||||||
| stipe context | Bas (1969): longitudinally acrophysalidic. | ||||||||
| partial veil | not described. | ||||||||
| lamella edge tissue | Bas (1969): filamentous hyphae present; inflated cells abundant, globose to pyriform, 20 - 35 × 15 - 30 μm, [terminal singly?? or in chains—ed.]. | ||||||||
| basidiospores |
Bas (1969): [57/5/5] 11.0 - 13.5 × 7.0 - 9.0 μm, (Q = 1.40 - 1.80; Q = 1.60 - 1.70), thin-walled, amyloid, ellipsoid to elongate; apiculus sublateral, cylindric (both per figure); contents "subgranular to granular," "somewhat yellowish in alkaline solution"; whitish to pale cream in deposit. composite data from all material revised by RET: [115/6/5] (9.2-) 10.8 - 13.2 (-15.0) × (5.5-) 6.5 - 8.7 (-9.5) µm, (L = 11.4 - 12.7 µm; L’ = 11.9 µm; W = 6.9 - 8.1 µm; W’ = 7.7 µm; Q = (1.27-) 1.35 - 1.85 (-2.0); Q = 1.44 - 1.74; Q’ = 1.56), thin-walled, smooth, hyaline, colorless, inamyloid, ellipsoid to elongate, rarely broadly ellipsoid or cylindric, adaxially flattened, sometimes adaxially indented; apiculus sublateral, small, cylindric; contents multiguttulate or monoguttulate with additional small granules; white in deposit. | ||||||||
| ecology | Solitary. New Jersey: In sandy soil of Pinus rigida-Quercus barrens. | ||||||||
| material examined |
Bas (1969): U.S.A.: INDIANA—Unkn. Co. - Jakoma Park, 7.viii.1919 C. H. Kauffman s.n. (MICH). NORTH CAROLINA—Orange Co. - Chapel Hill, 21.ix.1913 W. C. Coker 814 (holotype, NCU). TENNESSEE—Blount Co. - Chilhowee, 6.vii.1955 L. R. Hesler 21832 (L; TENN). Knox Co. - Knoxville, 23.vi.1953 L. R. Hesler 20868 p.p. (L; TENN), 30.vi.1953 L. R. Hesler 20875 (L; TENN). U.S.A.: CONNECTICUT—New London Co. - Pachaug St. For., 25.ix.1999 David Rose s.n. [Tulloss 9-25-99-N] (RET 303-7). Tolland Co. - Hebron, Hemlocks Nature Educ. Ctr. [41°37’11” N/ 72°23’22” W, 145-160 m], 21.ix.1996 C. DeGesperis s.n. [Tulloss 9-21-96-B] (RET 249-10). MASSACHUSETTS—Barnstable Co. (Cape Cod) -N. Eastham, 22.ix.1989 Walt Rode s.n. [Tulloss 9-22-89-WR1]. Middlesex Co. - Medford, Middlesex Fells Res., 11.ix.1994 Boston Mycol. Club member s.n. (RET 130-4). NEW JERSEY—Middlesex Co. - Jamesburg Twp. Pk., ca. Helmetta [40°23’07” N/ 74°25’48” W], 9.viii.1981 M. A. King, A. Norarevian & R. E. Tulloss 8-9-81-C (RET 172-7). Unkn. Co. - unkn. loc. | ||||||||
| discussion |
After his description of the present species, Bas supplied a three part discussion. First he noted, "The pileipellis is also gelatinized underneath the warts, therefore the warts could be washed off in rainy weather. The volva on the cap does not always crack up into many conical warts but sometimes into a few patch-like agregates of warts." Secondly he provides evidence that Gilbert and Küaut;hner intended to be naming a new species when they proposed the name Lepidella cokeri (the basionym of the present species). He concludes with this brief paragraph: "The name Amanita solitaria has been used in N. America for several species in literature and for still many more in herbaria. The magnificent fungus described and depicted under this name by Coker...and at present named A. cokeri is easy to recognize because of the white, viscid cap decorated with conical warts, the ample, double ring, the ventricose bulb with recurving scales, the large spores, and the presence of clamps. Its center of distribution seems to be in North Carolina and Tennessee. Records of A. solitaria from the western U.S.A. probably refer mostly to A. smithiana." At the time, Bas was not aware of the taxon that we now call A. subcokeri; and it is possible that one or more of the non-type collections that he reviewed and assigned to A. cokeri might have included material of the former species; however, given the sporograph comparison below, this seems not to have played much of a role in determining his reported spore data. In addition to the differences in spore size and shape brought out in the comparison of sporographs, A. subcokeri is also segregatable from the present species by its distinctive odor, its smaller and more frequently retained pileal warts, and the more northerly extension of its range. RET's experience has been that for well-collected, well-dried, mature material, the difference in spore size and shape is a very reliable character for segregating the taxa. | ||||||||
| citations | —R. E. Tulloss | ||||||||
| editors | RET | ||||||||
Information to support the viewer in reading the content of "technical" tabs can be found here.
| name | Amanita cokeri |
| name status | nomen acceptum |
| author | (E.-J. Gilbert & Kühner) E.-J. Gilbert |
| english name | "Coker's Lepidella" |
| images |
1. Amanita cokeri - New Jersey Pine Barrens 2. Amanita cokeri - New York state 3. Dr. C. Bas' illustration of Amanita cokeri (1969) 4. Amanita cokeri from GSMNP ATBI, Tennessee 5. L. R. Hesler photograph of Amanita cokeri 6. L. R. Hesler photograph of Amanita cokeri |
| photo |
Photos: R. E. Tulloss (top, New Jersey; middle-left, New York; middle-right, Tennessee);
L. R. Hesler (bottom, Tennessee, with permission of Dr. R. H. Petersen, L. R. Hesler Herbarium, Univ. of Tenn., Knoxville) |
| name | Amanita cokeri |
| bottom links |
[ Section Lepidella page. ]
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| name | Amanita cokeri |
| bottom links |
[ Section Lepidella page. ]
[ Amanita Studies home. ]
[ Keys & Checklists ] |
Spore data sets and their composite
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.
Text and User-Generated Sporographs are published under the Creative Commons License.
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