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

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name	Amanita wellsii
name status	nomen acceptum
author	(Murrill) Murrill
english name	"Salmon Amanita"
images	1. Amanita wellsii - RET 2. Amaninta wellsii - Hesler photo, Univ. Tenn., Knoxville 3. Amanita wellsii, faded specimens - Maine, U.S.A. - Dr. S. S. Ristich 4. Amanita wellsii - Prov. Ontario, Canada - Walter Sturgeon 5. Amanita wellsii - Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
intro	The following description is based on the description of Jenkins (1977). Additional observations from RET are included.
cap	The cap of A. wellsii is 30 - 130 mm wide, globose to convex, eventually plano-convex to planar, zinc-orange to ochraceous-salmon, fading to near antimony yellow, remaining darker in the center, dry to viscid when moist, with a striate margin (less than 20% of the cap radius) in age. The margin often extends past the gills (a so called sterile edge). The "volval remnants are present as irregularly distributed, delicate warts to soft squamules or patches of easily removable floccose material, often forming a tomentum on the margin"; the volval remnants are yellowish-buff to cadmium yellow, paler after exposure to sunlight, and are rarely whitish. The flesh is white, except yellow just below the cap skin. Faded specimens are depicted in the third and fourth photographs, above.
gills	The gills are white at first, becoming pale cream to Naples yellow, free or adnexed, crowded, widest nearer the margin, yellow floccose at the edge, with an occasional, faint, decurrent, floccose line on the top of the stem. The short gills are truncate, plentiful, of diverse lengths, and unevenly distributed.
stem	The stem is 70 - 160 × 5 - 20 mm, tapering upward, expanded at the top, pale yellow (darkens from handling), stuffed or hollow, with delicate and fragmentary volval remnants—often loosely woven, evanescent, floccose patches or as a distinct yellow line around the bulb. The ring is superior, very delicate, loosely woven, evanescent, often torn away and partially remaining on the edge of the cap. The basal bulb is 15 - 27 mm wide, up to 29 mm long, ovoid to subglobose to ellipsoid to broadly clavate or somewhat turnip shaped, and pallid. The flesh is white.
odor/taste	The taste is mild with lingering unpleasantness. No odor is present.
spores	The spores measure (8.7-) 10.5 - 13.8 (-18.0) × (4.9-) 5.6 - 8.4 (-10.8) µm and are ellipsoid to elongate, infrequently cylindric, and inamyloid. Clamps occur at 3 - 7% of bases of basidia/basidioles. [Jenkins (1977) reported infrequent clamps in the volva.]
discussion	Originally described from New Hampshire, USA, the current known range of A. wellsii extends from the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina to the northern limit of the distribution of alder in Canada (David Malloch, pers. corresp.). It has also been reported growing in commercial blueberry (Vaccinium) fields in Maine (Samuel Ristich, pers. corresp). RET has recently received material of A. wellsii from Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula (Andrus Voitk, pers. corresp.) where it was found in a dwarf willow (Salix)-dwarf birch (Betula) coastal heath barren. RET believes this is a first report from such a habitat. In northern Quebec Prov., Canada, the species is sometimes found growing within blueberry bushes, with diverse tree taxa relatively close by (e.g., Betula, Pinus, Populus, etc.). The set of characters represented in A. wellsii are, so far as is known, unique in section Amanita. The reader may wish to compare A. wellsii to A. pulverotecta Bas described from Africa, which also has a pigmented powdery volva, weak or absent ring, elongate spores, etc. There are only eight taxa is section Amanita that are described as having the average spore shape elongate; none are described with narrower spores. The reader will find references to elongate-spored taxa on the pages for A. agglutinata (Berk. & M. A. Curtis) Lloyd, A. breckonii Ammirati & Thiers, A. eliae Quél., A. lippiae Wartchow & Tulloss, and A. siamensis R. Sanmee et al. In the past, some U.S. mycologists have misapplied the name A. parcivolvata (Peck) E.-J. Gilbert to the present species.—R. E. Tulloss
brief editors	RET

name

Amanita wellsii

author

(Murrill) Murrill. 1920. Mycologia 12: 292.

name status

nomen acceptum

english name

"Salmon Amanita"

synonyms

≡Venenarius wellsii Murrill. 1920. Mycologia 12: 291.

≡Amanita wellsii (Murrill) Sacc. & Trotter 1925. Syll. Fung. 23: 3. [Superfluous combination]

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.

etymology

genitive of Latinized name, "Wells'" or "of Wells"

MycoBank nos.

174316, 199888

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
KU248115	nrITS	28.ix.2005 A. Voitk s.n. (RET 387-5)	J. Geml et al., Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden
OK299151	nrITS-LSU	3.x.2014 Mrs. Wasilewski s.n. (RET 654-2)	S. D. Russell, Marion, IN
OK285332	nrLSU	28.ix.2005 A. Voitk s.n. (RET 387-5)	S. D. Russell, Marion, IN
HQ540069	mtLSU	3.ix.1988 S. S. Ristich s.n. [Tulloss 9-3-88-SSR1] (RET 001-5)	B. Wolfe et al., Pringle Lab., Harvard
OK299169	nrLSU	9.ix.2015 Bonni Mackintosh s.n. (RET 726-6)	S. D. Russell, Marion, IN
HQ539758	nrLSU	3.ix.1988 S. S. Ristich s.n. [Tulloss 9-3-88-SSR1] (RET 001-5)	B. Wolfe et al., Pringle Lab., Harvard
HQ539861	nrSSU	3.ix.1988 S. S. Ristich s.n. [Tulloss 9-3-88-SSR1] (RET 001-5)	B. Wolfe et al., Pringle Lab., Harvard
HQ539968	mtSSU	3.ix.1988 S. S. Ristich s.n. [Tulloss 9-3-88-SSR1] (RET 001-5)	B. Wolfe et al., Pringle Lab., Harvard
KU248116	nrITS	21.ix.1996 J. A. Lankalis s.n. (RET 259-1)	J. Geml et al., Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden
KP313594	nrITS	1.ix.2006 Romain Labrie s.n. [Tulloss 9-1-06-B] (RET 395-6)	J. Geml et al., Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden
OK285331	nrLSU	21.ix.1996 J. A. Lankalis s.n.(RET 259-1)	S. D. Russell, Marion, IN

holotypes

type studies

Jenkins. 1977. Biblioth. Mycol. 57: 99.
Jenkins. 1979. Mycotaxon 10: 198.

revisions

Jenkins. 1977. Biblioth. Mycol. 57: 78.
Wartchow, Tulloss and Cavalcanti. 2009. Mycologia 101: 867. [partial]
Tulloss, here

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 data presented below is based on original research of R. E. Tulloss.

pileus

83 - 130 mm wide, salmon to orange to yellow-orange to red-orange, sometimes unevenly pigmented, sometimes becoming more evenly pigmented (and very slightly browner) by maturity, hemispheric at first, then convex to broadly convex, sometimes uneven, tacky to subviscid to viscid when moist, rather dull when tacky, becoming subshiny when dry; context white except for yellow band 2 - 3 mm thick just below pileipellis, unchanging when cut or bruised, 5.5 - 10 mm thick, thinning evenly for 85 - 95% of radius, then membranous to margin; margin sometimes nonstriate at first, eventually short striate (0.05R - 0.2R), incurved at first, decurved at maturity, sterile; universal veil as friable warts or powdery layer (sometimes suggesting universal veil of A. flavoconia), bright yellow, becoming sordid pale cream or sordid very pale tan upon exposure and drying in situ, detersile.

lamellae

free without decurrent line on stipe apex, crowded, cream in mass, white in side view, 7 - 14 mm broad, broadest near midpoint; lamellulae truncate, of diverse lengths, unevenly distributed, plentiful.

stipe

79 - 90 × 11.5 - 15 mm, white to pale yellow, becoming brown to nearly black from handling (especially on raised fibrils), finely pulverulent above parital veil, fibrillose below it, longitudinally striatulate, slightly narrowing upward or cylindric, flaring just at apex; bulb white, ellipsoid to broadly clavate, 21 - 29 × 19 - 27 mm; context white at first, becoming brownish where nearby surface has bruised, with larva tunnels concolorous or with brownish tint, firmly stuffed with dense white material, with central cylinder 3 - 9 µm wide; partial veil subapical to superior, white to yellowish white to pale yellow, sometimes more strongly pigmented below, nonstriate above and below, subpulverulent below, submembranous, weakly structured, sometimes with yellow bits of universal veil attached to underside at edge; universal veil as scattered to confluent warts or small patches, bright yellow, fading as on pileus, detersile.

odor/taste

Odor lacking. Taste not recorded.

macrochemical
tests

Spot test for syringaldazine (laccase) - rapidly positive then slowly fading in base of bulb (otherwise negative throughout basidiome) in incompletely expanded specimen; negative throughout basidiome in mature specimen. Spot test for tyrosinase (paracresol) - positive except for central cylinder of stipe, much of bulb (excluding base and region below central cyinder), most of pileus context except in region above and slightly broader than stipe, and much of gill surfaces in incompletely expanded specimen; positive except for central cylinder of stipe, much of gill surfaces and base of bulb in mature specimen. Test voucher: Tschekunow s.n. (29.x.1998).

basidiospores

send to graphing tool

from type study of Jenkins (1979): [-/-/1] 11.0 - 12.6 × 6.3 - 7.9 μm, (Q = 1.48 - 2.00; Q' = 1.63), hyaline, thin-walled, nonamyloid, ellipsoid to cylindric, often adaxially flattened; apiculus sublateral, cylindric; contents guttulate; color in deposit not recorded.

[415/20/15] (8.7-) 10.5 - 13.8 (-18.0) × (4.9-) 5.6 - 8.4 (-10.8) µm, (L = (10.4-) 10.6 - 13.0 (-13.2) µm; L’ = 11.9 µm; W = (5.3-) 6.4 - 7.6 (-8.6) µm; W’ = 7.1 µm; Q = (1.39-) 1.50 - 1.94 (-2.62); Q = (1.52-) 1.62 - 1.76 (-1.92); Q’ = 1.69), inamyloid, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline, colorless, ellipsoid to elongate to cylindric, often adaxially flattened, occasionally expanded at one end, occasionally as giant spores; apiculus sublateral, pronounced, truncate-conic to cylindric; contents multiguttulate; ?? in deposit.

ecology

Québec: On sandy soil in mixed woods including (e.g.) Alnus, Betula, Populus, Vaccinium, etc. Newfoundland & Labrador: At 0 - 61 m elev. In heaths (e.g., coastal heath barren) containing dwarf Betula, Empetrum, dwarf Salix, Vaccinium spp., etc. Maine: At 25 - 225 m elev. In blueberry (Vaccinium) patch on sand terrace with Alnus, Acer rubra, Salix, and Spirea or in commercial blueberry field with no other nearby woody plants. New Hampshire: Under Tsuga canadensis and Pinus strobus. New Jersey: At 15 - 250 m elev. In duff and loam under Tsuga canadensis near Gomphidius glutinosus (Schaeff. : Fr.) Fr.

[Note: It is possible that Vaccinium was present in all the cases cited.]

material examined

from type study of Jenkins (1979): U. S. A.: NEW HAMPSHIRE— Sullivan Co. - Springfield, 1.ix.1917 W. A. Murrill s.n. (holotype, NY 66719).

CANADA: NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR—Isl. of Newfoundland - Avalon Peninsula, Cape Saint Mary’s [46°49'23" N/ 54°11'44" W, 0-61 m], 28.ix.2005 A. Voitk s.n. (in herb. Voitk; RET 387-5, nrITS & nrLSU seq'd.). QUÉBEC—Région Capitale-Nationale - Lac-Saint-Joseph, Chez Denis [46°56' N/ 71°38' W, ca. 170 m], 30.vii.1967 R. L. Shaffer 5604 (MICH). Région Saugenay-Lac-Saint-Jean - Route 155 S of Lac-Bouchette, W of km 199, 1.ix.2006 Romain Labrie s.n. [Tulloss 9-1-06-B] (RET 395-6, nrITS seq'd.). U.S.A.: CONNECTICUT—Unkn. Co. - unkn. loc., ix.1984 Aaron Norarevian 9-84-AN1 (RET 234-1). MAINE—Cumberland Co. - Freeport, Wolfe’s Neck St. Pk. [43°49'28" N/ 70°05'15" W, ca. 25 m], 7.ix.1984 student of S. S. Ristich s.n. [Tulloss 9-7-84-SSR] (RET 237-10 p.p.); N. Yarmouth, Sligo Rd., 5.ix.1984 S. S. Ristich s.n. [Tulloss 9-5-84-SSR] (RET 237-10 p.p.); N. Yarmouth, 3.ix.1988 S. S. Ristich s.n. [Tulloss 9-3-88-SSR1] (RET 001-5). Hancock Co. - Mt. Desert Island, 8.viii.1991 Arleen Bessette 8-8-91-AB1 (RET 030-8). Oxford Co. - Greenwood, Locke Mills, N of Portland on Route 26 [44°24'00" N/ 70°42'07" W, 225 m], 23.viii.1986 S. S. Ristich 8-23-86-SSR1 (RET 466-1, nrITS & nrLSU seq'd.); Grafton Notch St. Pk., 25.viii.1985 S. S. Ristich s.n. [Tulloss 8-25-85-SSR1] (RET 211-5). Unkn. Co. - unkn. loc., 2/3.viii.1988 S. S. Ristich s.n. [Tulloss 8-2/3-88-SSR1] (RET 045-4). MASSACHUSETTS—Worcester Co. - Leominster, 21.ix.1947 R. Singer s.n. (FH); Westborough, 2.viii.2011 Dr. Laszlo Nagy 5019 (SZMC; RET 646-3, nrLSU seq'd.). MICHIGAN—Chippewa Co. - Round Island Point Nature Reserve [46.4298° N/ 84.4958° W, 186 m], 9.ix.2015 Bonni Mackintosh s.n. (RET 726-6, nrITS-LSU seq'd.). NEW HAMPSHIRE—Hillsborough Co. - Fox St. For., ca. Valley Tr., 6.ix.1959 O. K. Miller 526 (VPI as "A. volvata"). Unkn. Co. - unkn. loc., 24.ix.1989 member Montshire Mycol. Club s.n. (RET 016-3). NEW JERSEY—Sussex Co. - Stokes St. For., Struble Rd. [41°11'05" N/ 74°48'19" W, ca. 242 m], 29.x.1998 H. Tschekunow s.n. (RET ??). PENNSYLVANIA—Schuylkill Co. - Locust Lk. St. Pk. [40°46'44" N/ 76°08'05" W, ca. 423 m], 21.ix.1996 J. A. Lankalis s.n. (RET 259-1, nrITS & nrLSU seq'd.). Sullivan Co. - 8-10 km S of Lopez, tr. parall. to Splashdam Pond on upr. Main Branch Mehoopany Crk., tr. head W of Rte. 407 [41°24'12" N/ 76°16'44" W, ca. 622], early ix.2008 David Wasilewski s.n. (RET 421-9), 3.x.2014 Mrs. Wasilewski s.n. (RET 654-2, nrITS-LSU seq'd.). VERMONT—??.

discussion

Material determined in the field in Missouri (RET 576-2) as A. wellsii has yielded an nrITS sequence that is over 2.4% distant from sequences based on multiple sampled collections from Massachusetts and Quebec. It will be important to obtain more specimens having the general appearance of A. wellsii from the Appalachians and from other regions of the southeastern U.S.

citations

—R. E. Tulloss

editors

RET

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Spore data for collections
provisionally identified as: Amanita wellsii (Murrill) Murrill

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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