iBRIEF DESCRIPTION: Amanita farinosa is a rather small species of the eastern U.S.A. and southeastern Canada. It is rather common, but may be overlooked because of its small size. A collector may sometimes, mistakenly, originally identify material of this species as belonging in Amanita section Vaginatae because of the color and long marginal striations of the cap; however, the present species has a distinct, though small, basal bulb on its stipe and must be placed in Amanita section Amanita.

Its cap is a shade of brownish gray with the disc sometimes darker and browner than the rest; it has a strongly striate margin. The volva is distributed over the 30 - 55 mm wide cap as brownish gray powder.

The gills are narrowly adnate, close to subcrowded, white to off-white, 4 - 7 mm broad and, occasionally exhibit forking. The lshort gills are truncate to rounded truncate and occasionally attach to the stipe rather than to the cap margin.

The exannulate stipe is 45 - 60 x 4.5 - 8 mm. The small bulb (5 - 8 x 8 - 9 mm) bears a powdery area of universal veil on its upper surface that is usually quite distinct.

The spores measure (6.0-) 6.5 - 8.8 (-10.5) x (5.0-) 5.5 - 7.0 (-9.0) µm and subglobose to ellipsoid (infrequently globose or elongate) and inamyloid. Clamps are not present at bases of basidia.

This species is commonly found in forests with oak, beech, or hickory.  Its known range extends from southeastern Canada to cloud forests of the Cordillera Talamanca of Costa Rica.

This name is applied to a taxon of western North America that may be a distinct species. In other parts of the world (e.g., eastern Asia) the name has been applied to locally occurring taxa. In New Zealand, the taxon to which this name has been applied is a distinct species -- A. nehuta G. S. Ridl. Other taxa to which comparison is of interest include A. basiana Tulloss & M. Traverso, A. friabilis (Karst.) Bas, A. hyperborea (Karst.) Fayod, A. levistriata Dav. T. Jenkins, A. obsita Corner & Bas, A. pulverotecta Bas>, A. siamensis Sanmee et al., A. subvaginata (Cleland & Cheel) E.-J. Gilbert, and A. xerocybe Bas. -- R. E. Tulloss