Amanita sturgeonii - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella

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name	Amanita sturgeonii
name status	nomen provisorum
author	Tulloss, Q. Cai & Kudzma
english name	"Sturgeon's Destroying Angel"
images	1. Amanita sp-O01, Colombiana Co., Ohio, U.S.A. 2. Amanita sp-O01, Colombiana Co., Ohio, U.S.A. 3. Amanita sp-O01, from poisoning case, Somerset Co., New Jersey, U.S.A. 4. Amanita sp-O01, 10% KOH on emergency room specimen, Sergeantsville, Hunterdon Co., New Jersey, U.S.A. (RET 648-2) 5. Amanita sp-O01, mature specimen without half affected by the 'tar syndrome,' Sergeantsville, Hunterdon Co., New Jersey, U.S.A. (RET 648-3) 6. Amanita sp-O01, mature specimen showing the 'tar syndrome,' Sergeantsville, Hunterdon Co., New Jersey, U.S.A. (RET 648-3)
intro	The following information is derived from original research by the authors of this tab. More collections with good annotation of the mushroom in fresh condition are very much needed.
cap	The cap of Amanita sturgeonii is 50 - 100 mm wide, white, with pale yellowish tan to tan to sordid tan to olivaceous areas developing particularly over the center. At first the cap is broadly rounded-conic or campanulate with an incurved margin; at maturity it is convex to planar. It is viscid when moist. The fleish is white; and the margin is not striate. It usually bears no remnants of the volva.
gills	The gills are adnexed and white in mass and in side view, with edges becoming tan when bruised.
stem	The stem measures 70 - 100 × 10 - 15 mm (length includes bulb) and is white and cylindric. The stem is furfuraceous near apex and fibrillose below its ring. There is a bulb< 12 - 22 × 15 - 20 mm) at the stem's base. The white ring is placed at the top of the stem and is skirt-like, thin, fragile; it often tears during development of the mushroom and falls away. The white or whitish, membranous volva projects upward from the bulb and encircles the stem base; the distance from the highest point on the volva to the bottom of the bulb is 20 - 30 mm, with 8^± mm of free-standing membrane.
odor/taste	The odor of A. sturgeonii is pungent, unpleasant, or meat-like. No taste has been recorded. POISONOUS.
spores	The spores of this species measure (6.8-) 7.5 - 9.5 (-10.2) × (6.2-) 7.0 - 9.0 (-9.2) μm and are globose to subglobose to (occasionally) broadly ellipsoid and amyloid. Clamps are probably lacking at bases of basidia.
discussion	On this site, this species was formerly known as "A. sp-O01."—R. E. Tulloss
brief editors	RET

name

Amanita sturgeonii

author

Tulloss, Q. Cai & Kudzma nom. prov.

name status

nomen provisorum

english name

"Sturgeon's Destroying Angel"

etymology

Honoring the first and primary collector, Walter Sturgeon. He insisted this was a new species until molecular studies proved him right.

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.

accession	locus	voucher	source
KX270302	nrITS	24.x.2015 poisoning victim s.n. (RET 725-1A)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
KX270329	nrLSU	24.x.2015 poisoning victim s.n. (RET 725-1A)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
OQ928196	nrLSU	07.ix.2021 poisoning victims s.n. (RET 931-6)	S. D. Russell, Marion, IN
KX270301	nrITS	28.viii.2008 Dr. Nici s.n. (RET 422-8)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
KJ466407	nrITS	20.ix.2011 Walter Sturgeon s.n. (HKAS 77822; RET 493-6)	Q. Cai et al. (2014), Kunming Inst. Bot., Yunnan, China
MW792632	rpb2	24.x.2015 poisoning victim s.n. (RET 725-1A)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
MK471233	nrITS	28.viii.2008 Dr. Nici s.n. (RET 422-8)	S. D. Russell et al., Purdue Univ.
KX270304	nrITS	24.x.2015 poisoning victim s.n. (RET 725-1C)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
MW785208	nrITS	LVK 20001	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
MW785210	nrLSU	LVK 20001	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
MW792632	rpb2	LVK 20001	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
KP258998	nrITS	1.x.2014 R. E. Tulloss 10-1-14-A (RET 648-3)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
KJ481984	tef1	20.ix.2011 Walter Sturgeon s.n. (HKAS 77822; RET 493-6)	Q. Cai et al. (2014), Kunming Inst. Bot., Yunnan, China
KJ466650	rpb2	20.ix.2011 Walter Sturgeon s.n. (HKAS 77822; RET 493-6)	Q. Cai et al. (2014), Kunming Inst. Bot., Yunnan, China
MK277583	nrLSU	x.2013 Walter Sturgeon s.n. (RET 579-8)	L. Nagy, Agaricales Diversification, Szeged Univ.
KJ466564	beta-tubulin	20.ix.2011 Walter Sturgeon s.n. (HKAS 77822; RET 493-6)	Q. Cai et al. (2014), Kunming Inst. Bot., Yunnan, China
KX270305	nrITS	24.x.2015 poisoning victim s.n. (RET 725-1D)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
KJ466470	nrLSU	20.ix.2011 Walter Sturgeon s.n. (HKAS 77822; RET 493-6)	Q. Cai et al. (2014), Kunming Inst. Bot., Yunnan, China
KJ466649	rpb2	28.viii.2008 Dr. Nici s.n. (HKAS 77816; RET 422-8)	Q. Cai et al. (2014), Kunming Inst. Bot., Yunnan, China
KX270303	nrITS	24.x.2015 poisoning victim s.n. (RET 725-1B)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
OQ928196	nrLSU	07.ix.2021 poisoning victims s.n. (RET 931-6)	S. D. Russell, Marion, IN
KP258997	nrITS	28.ix.2014 poisoning victim's family s.n. [Tulloss 9-29-14-A] (RET 648-2)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
KJ466563	beta-tubulin	28.viii.2008 Dr. Nici s.n. (HKAS 77816; RET 422-8)	Q. Cai et al. (2014), Kunming Inst. Bot., Yunnan, China
KX270328	nrLSU	28.viii.2008 Dr. Nici s.n. (RET 422-8)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ
KJ481983	tef1	28.viii.2008 Dr. Nici s.n. (HKAS 77816; RET 422-8)	Q. Cai et al. (2014), Kunming Inst. Bot., Yunnan, China
MK471233	nrITS	28.viii.2008 Dr. Nici s.n. (RET 422-8)	S. D. Russell et al., Purdue Univ.

intro

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 is based on original research by the authors of this tab.

pileus

50 - 100 mm wide, white, with pale yellow to pale yellowish tan to tan to sordid tan to olivaceous?? areas developing particularly over disc; broadly rounded-conic or campanulate (often with vertical sides) at first, then convex to plano-convex to planar, viscid when moist, matte when dry; context white, 4.5 - 7 mm thick above stipe, unchanging when cut or bruised, frim, dense, thinning slowly toward margin, still 1^± mm thick within 4 mm of margin; margin nonstriate, nonappendiculate, incurved at first; universal veil absent.

lamellae

free to narrowly adnate with very faint decurrent lines near stipe apex (requiring 10× lens), crowded, white to off-white in mass, white to off-white to pale cream in side view, unchanging when cut or bruised, rounded at pileus margin, acute at stipe, 4.5 - 8.5 mm broad, broadest at 75% of pileus radius from stipe, with edges white and fimbriate and becoming tan when bruised; lamellulae truncate to rounded truncate (shortest) or attenuate (longest), plentiful, of diverse lengths, unevenly distributed.

stipe

43 - 100 × 10 - 15 mm (length includes bulb), white, unchanging when cut or bruised, cylindric, furfuraceous near apex, fibrillose or minutely fibrillose below partial veil; bulb 12 - 29 × 15 - 23 mm, napiform, marginate, firmer than in (e.g.) A. bisporigera; context solid, white, unchanging when cut or bruised, concolorous in insect tunnels; partial veil subapical to apical, skirt-like, white, thin, fragile, often tearing during development of basidiome, often deciduous, striate above, smooth below; universal veil irregularly limbate, white or whitish, membranous, enclosing stipe bulb, 20 - 30 mm from stipe base to uppermost point on limb, with 8^± mm of limb free, with upper portion of limbs very thin, with limb base having triangular cross-section up to 2 mm thick at base, with only very narrow sinus separating limb from stipe base.

odor/taste

Odor Faintly of old potates or pungent unpleasant and meat-like. Taste not recorded.

POISONOUS. A death following an intoxication with the symptomology of amanitin poisoning has been reliably attributed to ingestion of this species.

macrochemical
tests

5% and 10% KOH soln. - quickly strong yellow on pileus. Test vouchers:

lamella trama

bilateral, divergent; ??

subhymenium

pseudoparenchymatous (cellular), with abrupt interface to subhymenial tree.

basidia

38^± × 9.0 - 11.5 μm, 4-sterigmate, with sterigmata up to ?? × ?? μm, arising from ??; clamps not observed.

universal veil

On pileus: absent. On stipe base, exterior layer of limb: dominated by gelatinized interwoven filamentous hyphae. On stipe base, interior of limb: filamentous undifferentiated hyphae 3.1 - 17.3 μm wide, dominant, commonly branching, single or in fascicles of up to at least 7 hyphae, with walls dominantly thin (occasionally up to 0.5 μm thick) and sometimes yellowish and refractive; inflated cells locally common, broadly clavate to narrowly clavate to nearly cylindric, up to 224 × 80 μm, with walls usually thin (occasionally up to 0.7 μm thick); vascular hyphae not observed; clamps not observed. On stipe base, inner surface layer of limb: thin, similar to interior, but gelatinized.

lamella edge tissue

sterile; ??

basidiospores

send to graphing tool

[53/1/1] (6.8-) 7.5 - 9.5 (-10.2) × (6.2-) 7.0 - 9.0 (-9.2) μm, (L = 8.5 μm; W = 7.9 μm; Q = 1.0 - 1.14 (-1.20); Q =1.07), hyaline, colorless, smooth, thin-walled, weakly amyloid to amyloid, globose to subglobose or (occasionally) broadly ellipsoid, usually at least somewhat adaxially flattened; apiculus sublateral, trucate conic to cylindric; contents granular to mono- to multiguttulate; color in deposit not recorded.

ecology

Gregarious to scattered. Ohio: With Quercus (often Q. rubra) in somewhat open areas such as cemeteries and parks. New Jersey: In lawn between single Quercus and single 40-year-old Pinus, ca. 5 m distant from each other.

material examined

U.S.A.: NEW JERSEY—Hunterdon Co. - Sergeantsville, Reading Rd., 28.ix.2014 poisoning victim's family s.n. [Tulloss 9-29-14-A] (RET 648-2, nrITS seq'd.), 1.x.2014 R. E. Tulloss [10-1-14-A] (RET 648-3, nrITS seq'd.). Monmouth Co., Hazlet, 07.ix.2021 poisoning victims s.n. [RET 931-6, nrLSU seq’d.). Morris Co. - ca. Morristown, 24.x.2015 poisoning victim s.n. (RET 725-1, specimens labeled A-D). Somerset Co. - Franklin Twp., 28.viii.2008 Dr. Anthony Nici s.n. [www.mushroomobserver.org #10221] (HKAS 77816, nrITS & nrLSU seq'd.; RET 422-8, nrITS-LSU seq'd.). OHIO—Colombiana Co. - Colombiana, Colombiana Cemetery, x.2013 Walter Sturgeon s.n. (RET 579-8, nrITS seq'd.); East Liverpool, Thompson Pk. [40.6438° N/ 80.561° W, 353 m], 20.ix.2011 W. Sturgeon s.n. [www.mushroomobserver.org #79375] (HKAS 77822, nrITS & nrLSU seq'd.; RET 493-6, nrLSU seq'd.). Mahoning Co. - Youngstown, Forest Lawn Memorial Pk., 19.viii.1980 W. Sturgeon s.n. [Tulloss 8-19-80-WS] (RET 321-1), 1.x.1982 W. Sturgeon s.n. [Tulloss 10-1-82-WS] (RET 320-10), 10.x.1983 W. Sturgeon s.n. [Tullosss 10-10-83-WS1] (RET 241-3), 25.x.1986 W. Sturgeon s.n. [Tulloss 10-25-86-WS1] (RET 459-3), 4.x.2008 W. Sturgeon s.n. (RET 512-8 nrLSU seq'd.).

discussion

The first material of this species seen by RET was sent from Mahoning Co., Ohio by Walter Sturgeon in 1980. Sturgeon also has reported this species from Colombiana, Lake, and Licking Counties (Ohio) and from Letchworth State Park in New York. He reports the species is largely associated with Quercus rubra.

The present species can be distinguished from A. bisporigera by the lack of two-spored basidia in A. sturgeonii and the latter's spores having narrower range of Q values. A sporograph comparison of the present species with A. bisporigera is provided below.

Spore shape is also useful in segregating the present species from A. suballiacea, which has 4-spored basidia:

In the following image the sporograph of the present species is compare with those of A. amerivirosa and A. sp-bisporigera05. These two species have very similar spores (from the limited data we have to date); and the spores of both are notably larger than those of A. sturgeonii. It should be noted that data is limited at present.

The molecular work of Cai et al. (2014) determines the present species as the probable cause of death in a poisoning case reported from the former Princeton Medical Center (Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A.). At the time, the poisoning was attributed to A. bisporigera by RET.

Cai et al. (2014) called this species "Amanita sp. 5 Yang 2014."

Poisoning Case in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Two men had grilled and eaten a small amount of a single, rather small mushroom. One man ate about a fingernail size portion of the mushroom; the other ate the remainder. After a delay of fourteen hours, they both experienced symptoms strongly reminiscent of amanitin poisoning. Remission began to occur within twenty-four hours; however, there was no return of the symptoms as would be expected from if the mushroom had been A. bisporigera, A. phalloides, A. sturgeonii or A. ameirvirosa, or A. suballiacea, all of which are known to occur in the state of New Jersey or occur in states surrounding New Jersey. To complicate matters early on, the patient who had eaten most of the mushroom exhibited a significantly low kidney function. This suggested the toxic amino acid syndrome seen in person ingesting certain species of section Lepidella.

In an attempt to better understand the situation, RET went to the collecting site with two persons involved in the case (including the man who had eaten a small bit of the mushroom). Only one species of Amanita was found in the area from which the toxic specimen was collected. RET's collection is Tulloss 10-1-14-A. A second Amanita collection from the same site collected three days earlier appears to be identical macromorphologically and with regard to nrITs sequence. While preparing to send samples of the dried specimens to Dr. Ian Garber (St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia) for an assay of toxic amino acids, doctors at the hospital uncovered a history of kidney problems in the patient. This made it improbable that the mushroom was related to the kidney dysfunction that was observed. Dr. Garber's assay came back negative for the amino acids that are known to cause kidney failure when ingested. We are presently awaiting completion of an amanitin and phalloidin assay.

One of the specimens of Tulloss 10-1-14-A was distorted in a manner that I have seen once or twice before on white species of the Phalloideae in eastern North America: One side of the cap had split open and seemed to be covered with brownish black tar. This was not so far as I could tell a staining reaction of the basidiome tissues. Therefore, I propose to call it the "tar syndrome." The brown stain on the top of the cap in image 5 on the brief tab is an extension of the staining from the dark mass on the opposite side of the cap. This mass is shown in image 6 on the brief tab.

Until DNA sequences proved otherwise, the Hunterdon County material was treated (briefly) on this site as Amanita sp-O01 and as a distinct ("A. debilivenenum").

citations

—R. E. Tulloss and L. V. Kudzma

editors

RET

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Spore data for collections
provisionally identified as: Amanita sturgeonii Tulloss, Q. Cai & Kudzma

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.

basidiospore definition

Spore Measurements by Collection

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