Amanita xanthocephala (Berk.) D.A.Reid & R.N.Hilton in Reid, Austral. J. Bot. Suppl. Ser. 8: 65 (1980)

Image © Patricia Jordan Reproduced by permission

This is a smaller version of the story book "fairy" mushroom but with a red to orange-yellow cap, yellow warts on its cap, no ring and a rough, yellow margin at the top of the volva. Common Name: Vermilion Amanita

• Pileus/cap
  1.5-3cm diameter, colour ranging from red to orange to yellow. White to yellow-orange warts on cap, concentrated in centre. Convex but later flattening out; slightly viscid; usually covered with pieces of white volva. Margin striate (furrowed).

• Lamellae/gills
  White to lemon yellow. Free to adnexed (partially attached).

• Stipe/stalk
  Between 2-6 cm long. White or pale yellow. Thin and cylindrical with a swollen base. Fibrillose with fine white scales.

• Volva
  White with a yellow to orange floccose (having cottony scales) rim.

• Ring
  Unlike most Amanitas, a ring is usually absent in this species.

• Smell
  None.

• Spores
  7-11 x 8-9 µm sub-globose, smooth with a prominent apiculus, nonamyloid. Spore print white. Basidia with four spores.

• Habitat
  On soil amongst litter in native forests.

• References
  Bougher, N. & Syme, K. Fungi of Southern Australia, pp 172-173.
  Fuhrer, B. Field Companion to Australian Fungi p 21.

Distribution map

Last modified on 26 June 2002

Maintained by Gudrun Arnold

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