Amanita bisporigera

A. bisporigera in the east and Denver area; A. ocreata in the west)

Destroying Angel, Death Angel

Order Agaricales, family Amanitaceae

CAP PURE WHITE, SMOOTH, NO WARTS

3-14 cm broad, smooth, conic to convex then plane, not striate, no warts

GILLS FREE, WHITE

STALK WHITE WITH RING, VOLVA (CUP) ON ENLARGED BASE

10-25 cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide, white ring (may be tattered or missing) around stem when mature; club-shaped base, with a volva (cup) at the base. The volva is white, membranous, sacklike, separable from the stem and is OFTEN BURIED UNDERGROUND.

SPORE PRINT WHITE

Spores 7-10 x 6.5-8.5 µ , broadly elliptical to nearly round, smooth, thinwalled, amyloid

 ON GROUND WITH HARDWOODS

Common along the east coast, widely distributed in North America

DEADLY POISONOUS!!!

Lookalikes:

Leucoagaricus naucinus - no volva

Agaricus sp. -  chocolate brown spore print, no volva

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW… There are more of these stately, stark white Amanitas, A. ocreata in the west, and A. volvata in the southeastern United States.  A. verna, A. virosa and A. bisporigera may all be the same species – more studies need to be done. They all have cyclopeptides which kill liver cells. BE CAREFUL when collecting puffballs to eat – a young deadly Amanita, before it expands, looks like a smooth white puffball. Cut your puffballs in half to see if there is a mushroom forming inside; if so, it could be a deadly Amanita.

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