Grey Veiled Amanita

Description

The grey veiled amanita is a medium-sized amanita with a cap 4–10 cm across, grey-brown or grey-violet, smooth, shiny in dry weather and slimy in wet weather. It often bears grey patches of veil remnants. The gills are white and free, the stem slender, with a fragile, hanging ring of a grey-violet tint. The base of the stem is bulbous, with a ragged volva standing away from it. The flesh smells unpleasant, like rotting potatoes.

It grows from July to October, mainly in coniferous forests on acidic, poor soils: in pine forests in the lowlands, under spruce in the mountains. In Poland it is common.

It is a poisonous mushroom and is not suitable for eating. Mushroom pickers may confuse it with the blusher, and also with other amanitas, including the deadly poisonous death cap. Anyone who is not sure of the species of an amanita should not pick or eat it.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 4–10 cm; in young specimens bell-shaped to arched or hemispherical, quickly flattening. Margin blunt, not striate. Surface smooth, bare, with fine embedded fibrils, usually with patchy grey remnants of the veil. Colour grey-brown or grey-violet (the violet tint is not always distinct). Shiny in dry weather, slimy in wet weather.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills white or whitish, crowded, of unequal length, free at the stem; they darken when damaged.

Stem

Height 5–13 cm, thickness 0.6–2 cm; cylindrical, narrowing towards the top. Solid in young fruiting bodies, later hollow inside; grey-brown with a violet tint in older ones. Ring hanging, fragile, grey-violet or turning black, disappearing in older specimens. Base bulbous, with a ragged volva standing away from the stem (according to some descriptions the bulb may be surrounded by a white membranous volva), usually darker than the stem.

Flesh

White, brittle, fairly thin. Smell unpleasant, reminiscent of rotting or raw potatoes, and also of radish; taste radish-like. The flesh should not be tasted.

Spore print and spores

Spore print white. Spores spherical to almost spherical, smooth, 8–10 µm in diameter.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. A mycorrhizal fungus. Grows on poor, acidic soils under conifers, especially spruce, also fir and hemlock; occasionally under broadleaved trees, e.g. birch. In the Polish lowlands mainly in pine forests, in the mountains under spruce.

Distribution. Throughout the Northern Hemisphere: Europe, North America, Japan; also recorded in Australia. North American records, previously questioned, have been confirmed by DNA studies as the same species. In Europe very common in boreal and hemiboreal forests, less common in the temperate zone; more frequent in the mountains and in the north. In Poland common, with numerous localities. It is not legally protected in Poland.

Fruiting. From July to October.

What can it be confused with?

• Amanita rubescens — The blusher has flesh that turns red when damaged, a rusty-brown cap with powdery warts and a striate ring; the grey veiled amanita has a grey-brown or grey-violet cap, whitish flesh smelling of rotting potatoes and a bulbous base with a loose volva.
• Amanita phalloides (the death cap, deadly poisonous) — The death cap usually has an olive-greenish cap with embedded fibrils and a volva sac clearly enclosing the bulb; the grey veiled amanita has a grey-brown to grey-violet cap. Confusing them is dangerous, because the death cap is deadly poisonous.
• Amanita citrina (the false death cap) — Similar in shape and smell, but the cap is pale yellow to greenish, and the ring is not grey-violet.
• Amanita pantherina (the panther cap) — Listed as a species with which it can be confused; the panther cap has a brown cap with numerous white veil flakes and a striate margin.
• Amanita excelsa (the grey spotted amanita) — Larger and fleshier, without a bulb standing away from the stem.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• Described in 1805 by Albertini and Schweinitz in a work on the fungi of the Niesky area in Upper Lusatia.
• The older name Agaricus gracilis (Schumacher, 1803) is not valid, because the current name was sanctioned by Fries.
• The species epithet comes from the Greek word for Tyrian purple, a dye of antiquity.
• North American specimens, previously regarded by some researchers as a separate taxon, belong to the same species according to DNA studies.