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1st Amanita of year


bobby b

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Normally I don't see Amanitas in May but here's one. A praecox is listed as the early spring Amanita. I didn't see it on mushroomexpert but found it on Dave W life list and then on Amanitaceae.org. Under a couple Norway Spruce with horse mushrooms nearby. A praecox?

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If not Amanita praecox, then another species of section Amanita that's very close to praecox. According to Rod Tulloss, A. praecox always occurs in association with hemlock. There's another name that I had thought may apply --to the ones apparently associated with spruce or pine-- A. stranella. As part of the North American Mycoflora Project, I submitted a collection of  praecox-like mushrooms found under pine in August (hemlock not present; this species or something that looks just like begins to appear in late May or early June in the same location )  https://mushroomobserver.org/326553?q=nKHY  . Subsequent DNA analysis suggests this particular collection represents the species A. crenulata. So, perhaps either A. crenulata has a more variable morphology that I had previously expected, or A. praecox has a longer season and associates with a wider variety of trees than previously believed. I tend to thing the latter is unlikely, as Rod Tulloss has spent a fair amount of time studying praecox. But, there's a third possibility... the spruce and/or pine associate may represent yet another taxon (stranella?). 

Bobby, yours certainly looks like praecox. And as you say, the timing is right for this species. Might there be a single hemlock in the area? A few years back I was visiting friends in the Pittsburgh area late in May. We went out into the woods in a few spots. Here's an example of A. praecox I found in a predominantly hardwood forest (mainly oak). There were a couple of hemlocks right near where the amanita was found.  https://mushroomobserver.org/239481?q=nFnr

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Thanks Dave. These are spruce that are isolated on 2 sides with wide asphalt and even wider grass sections on the other sides.  No hemlock but I'll look again. The Amanitas  are on the small side without rings. On a side note the horse mushrooms are right in there with the spruce roots. So I wonder about arvensis or fissuratus. If I get lucky maybe I can find Kerrigans book in our library network.

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For at least some of the section Arvenses species of Agaricus, spore size matters. A. crocodilinus has larger spores than fissuratus. Upon inspection of spores at 400x, I have IDed quite a few of my local Horse Mushrooms as crocodilinus. I see that Mushroom Expert has dropped the species name "arvensis".

Amanita praecox (and perhaps some other similar species) typically loses it's ring early on. In the second photo down (above) the white arc seen lying near the stipe base looks like it may be a remnant of the PV. 

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