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[ Keys & Checklist/Picturebooks ] "Unexpected Guest Lepidella"
Technical description (t.b.d.) BRIEF DESCRIPTION: In the original description of this species (Reid, 1987), it was said to resemble a Strobilomyces species -- not a common comment about an Amanita! The cap of A. inopinata is 25 - 80 mm wide, convex or applanate, finally shallowly concave with a downward curved margin, entirely covered with a thick, cottony, pale gray-brown felt which disrupts into very prominent darker pyramidal warts. The flesh is white. The gills are rounded at the margin and (at least at times) salmon colored. The stem is 45 - 70 x 4 - 19 mm, cylindric to slightly enlarged below before tapering to a rooting base, with the lower portion at first densely spotted with very dark gray to almost black floccose scales (volva), soon disappearing, leaving the lower part of the stem densely flecked with delicate, dark blackish brown, hair-like fibrils with recurved tips on a dirty salmon to bright tawny background, finally passing into blackish gray-brown. The volva may also be present as irregular bands of gray to nearly back material on the stem. The spores measure 8 - 9 x 6 - 7 µm (Reid, 1987) and are strongly amyloid and subglobose to ovate, broadly ellipsoid, ellipsoid, or pip-shaped. Clamps are present at bases of basidia. Bas' measurement of spores from some of the original material were (8.7-) 9.2 - 10.2 (10.8) x 6.0 - 8.8 µm. Ridley (1991) reported spores (7.5-) 8 - 9 (-10) x (5.5-) 6 - 7.5 (-8) µm from poorly preserved material. Amanita inopinata, a very unusual species of Amanita subsect. Vittadiniae Bas, was originally described from England, where it was found associated with both native and non-native trees (Acer, Aesculus, Chamaecyparis, Fraxinus, Ilex, Picea, Taxus, and Ulmus (dead)). In some cases, none of the woody plants recorded for a site are known to form ectomycorrhizae. Since that time, the present species has been found repeatedly in England and, more recently, in the Netherlands (e.g., in early November, 2000). There is great curiosity as to where this strange species could have originated. At present, it seems most likely to have come from New Zealand. It is known to occur in New Zealand. G. S. Ridley (1991) described it from that country without giving it a name because of lack of information on anatomy due to poor quality of the dried specimens. Ridley thought the species might have been imported from Europe or North America as it occurred "under Chamaecyparis sp., Cupressus macrocarpa and (?)Pinus sp." While it is clear that this species belongs in subsection Vittadiniae, there seems to be no proper home for it among the stirpes that Bas described within that subsection. I suggest that it be placed in a new stirps Inopinata. -- R. E. Tulloss Photographs: courtesy of Dr. C. Bas
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