Amanita Persoon ex Hooker
Flora Scotland 2: 19. 1821.

Amanita is a genus of mostly medium to large gilled mushrooms. The most famous member of the genus is the red capped, white warted, "fly agaric" (Amanita muscaria). Amanita contains the world's most deadly mushrooms (A. phalloides, A. virosa) and some excellent edible mushrooms.

Principle characteristics of the genus Amanita:

• Spore deposit white
• Lamellae free
• Universal veil present, usually leaving warts or patches on the pileus and a fugacious to membranous volva
• Stipe is clearly separable from pileus
• Lamellular trama divergent

Keys and descriptions of the genus Amanita:

• Rod Tulloss: Amanita Studies
• Rod Tulloss: Amanita found in the Pacific coastal states of the U.S. and neighboring regions
• Pacific Northwest Key Council (Janet Lindgren): Trial key to the species of Amanita in the Pacific Northwest
• C. Bas: A broader view on Amanita
• Rod Tulloss: Notes on Methodology for Study of Amanita
• Thiers, H.D. (1982). The Agaricales (Gilled Fungi) of California. 1. Amanitaceae. Mad River Press: Eureka, CA.
• Jenkins, D.T. (1986). Amanita of North America. Mad River Press: Eureka, CA.
• Bas, C. (1969). Morphology and Subdivision of Amanita and a Mongraph of its Section Lepidella. Persoonia 5: 285-579.
• Jenkins, D. T. 1977. A taxonomic and nomenclatural study of the genus Amanita sect. Amanita for North America. Biblio. Mycol. 57: 1-126.

Amanita species known to occur in California:

1. Amanita aprica
2. Amanita augusta
3. Amanita bivolvata
4. Amanita breckonii
5. Amanita californica
6. Amanita calyptratoides
   
7. Amanita calyptroderma
8. Amanita cokeri
9. Amanita constricta
10. Amanita farinosa
11. Amanita gemmata
    1. var. exannulata
    2. var. gemmata
12. Amanita magniverrucata
13. Amanita muscaria
    1. var. alba
    2. var. flavivolvata
    3. var. formosa
    4. var. muscaria
14. Amanita novinupta
15. Amanita ocreata
16. Amanita pachycolea
17. Amanita pantherina
18. Amanita phalloides
19. Amanita porphyria
20. Amanita protecta
21. Amanita silvicola
22. Amanita smithiana
23. Amanita vaginata
24. Amanita velosa
25. Amanita vernicoccora
    

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