Amanita muscaria var. guessowii
Amanita muscaria var. guessowii, commonly known as the American yellow fly agaric, is a basidiomycete fungus of the genus Amanita. It is one of several varieties of the Amanita muscaria fungi, all commonly known as fly agarics.
| Amanita muscaria var. guessowii | |
|---|---|
 | |
| A mature Amanita muscaria var. guessowii mushroom under a northern white pine in Ovid, Michigan, United States | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Agaricales |
| Family: | Amanitaceae |
| Genus: | Amanita |
| Species: | |
| Variety: | A. m. var. guessowii |
| Trinomial name | |
| Amanita muscaria var. guessowii Veselý | |
| Amanita muscaria var. guessowii | |
|---|---|
 float | |
 | gills on hymenium |
 | cap is flat or convex |
 | hymenium is free |
 | stipe has a ring and volva |
 | spore print is white |
 | ecology is mycorrhizal |
 | edibility: not recommended or edible |
Description
Cap
The cap is 4.5–16 (18) cm wide, convex, and becomes broadly convex to flat in age. It is bright yellow or yellow-orange, usually more orange or reddish orange towards the disc, and fading to pale yellow. The volva is distributed over the cap as cream to pale tan warts; it is otherwise smooth and sticky when wet. The margin becomes slightly striate in age. The flesh is white and it does not stain when cut or injured.
Gills
The gills are free to narrowly adnate, subcrowded to crowded, cream to pale cream, truncate, unevenly distributed, of diverse lengths, and plentiful.
Spores
Amanita muscaria var. guessowii spores are white in deposit, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid (infrequently subglobose or elongate) and inamyloid. The spores are (7.0–) 8.7-12.2 (-14.8) x (5.9) 6.5–8.2 (9.5) µm.
Stipe
The stipe is (4)6 –15 x 1–3 cm, more or less equal or narrowing upwards and slightly flaring at the apex. It is white to yellowish cream, densely stuffed with a pith, the skirtlike ring is membranous, persistent, the lower stipe and upper bulb are decorated with partial or complete concentric rings of volval material that are bright pale yellow to cream or sordid cream.
Microscopic features
Clamps are present at bases of the basidia.
Distribution and habitat
Amanita muscaria var. guessowii is found growing solitary or gregariously, it is mycorrhizal with conifers mostly but also deciduous trees as well, it is found often in the fall but sometimes in the spring, common in the northeast, from eastern Canada to North Carolina west to Michigan.[1]
Biochemistry
As other amanita muscaria, the guessowii variety contains ibotenic acid and muscimol which can cause hallucinations. As with other wild-growing mushrooms, the amounts depends on a lot of external factors, including season, age, and habitat, and it can also vary from mushroom to mushroom.
