Amanita persicina

Description

Cap

The cap is 4–13 centimetres (1+1⁄2–5 inches) wide, hemispheric to convex when young, becoming plano-convex to plano-depressed in age. It is pinkish-melon-colored to peach-orange, sometimes pastel red towards the disc. The cap is slightly appendiculate. The volva is distributed over the cap as thin pale yellowish to pale tannish warts; it is otherwise smooth and subviscid, and the margin becomes slightly to moderately striate in age. The flesh is white and does not stain when cut or injured. The flesh has a pleasant taste and odor.

Gills

The gills are free, crowded, moderately broad, creamy with a pale pinkish tint, and have a very floccose edge. They are abruptly truncate.

Spores

Amanita persicina spores are white in deposit, ellipsoid to elongate, infrequently broadly ellipsoid, rarely cylindric, inamyloid, and are (8.0) 9.4–12.7 (18.0) x (5.5) 6.5–8.5 (11.1) μm.

Stipe

The stipe is 4–10.5 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, and more or less equal or narrowing upwards and slightly flaring at the apex. It is pale yellow in the superior region, tannish white below, and densely stuffed with a pith. The ring is fragile, white above and yellowish below, and poorly formed or absent. Remnants of the universal veil on the vasal bulb as concentric rings are fragile or absent.

Chemistry

This species contains variable amounts of the neurotoxic compound ibotenic acid and the psychoactive compound muscimol.

Distribution and habitat

A. persicina is found growing solitary or gregariously. It is mycorrhizal with conifers (Pine) and deciduous (Oak) trees in North America. It often fruits in the fall, but sometimes in the spring and summer. The fungus is common in the southeast United States, from Texas to Georgia, and north to New Jersey.

Toxicity

A. persicina is both poisonous and psychoactive if not properly prepared by parboiling. Pending further research, it should not be eaten.