Summary:
Subgenus Validae. The most distinctive features are the powdery yellow universal veil and yellow partial veil, which forms yellowish to grayish white warts on cap and a yellow or partly yellow ring. This species has been known under the misapplied name Amanita franchetii. It is common in the Pacific Northwest.

Cap:
3-15cm across, hemispheric to convex becoming flat-convex to flat-concave, "margin incurved to straight"; dark brown to brown to yellow-brown, sometimes yellow to grayish yellow when old, "typically paler towards the margin"; "occasionally ribbed striate near the margin", over the cap surface "the universal veil forming rows of concentric warts (finer towards the edge)", yellow but fading to grayish white when old, "easily removable, often partially or completely washed out or rubbed away", leaving cap partially or fully bald, (Bojantchev), 4.5-12(15)cm across, nearly round to convex then flat; dark brown to grayish brown, yellow-brown, or bright yellow; covered with yellow, mealy or powdery warts that become flattened and grayish to dingy buff when old or occasionally disappear, margin non-striate or faintly striate, (Arora), straw-colored to yellowy brown or grayish brown, dotted with yellowish patches of volval remains; smooth, sticky when wet, then becoming dry, (Phillips), 4-12(15)cm across, nearly spherical to convex, then flat; dark brown to gray-brown, or light brown, margin often yellow at very edge; viscid when moist, covered with mealy, yellow warts that become flattened and grayish when old; margin not usually striate, (Lindgren)

Flesh:
white to pale yellow, (Bojantchev), soft; white or tinged yellow, (Arora), sometimes bruising red-brown around insect holes at stem base, (Phillips)

Gills:
"narrowly attached to free", 0.9-2cm broad, crowded; "white to yellowish near the cap margin", (Bojantchev), adnate to adnexed or free, close; white or creamy yellow, (Arora), free or slightly adnexed, close, broad; whitish or yellow-tinged, (Phillips)

Stem:
4-15cm x 1-3cm, cylindric to widening downwards, "often with a distinct bulb" (also "prominent bulb in most basidiomata"), stem stuffed; yellow when young, often fading to whitish when old, typically yellowish above the ring; "surface above the bulb forming scaly girdles (finer towards the annulus) with yellow apices", often fading to bald when old, above the ring "distinctly longitudinally striate", (Bojantchev), 5-15(20)cm x 0.7-2.5cm, equal or widening downward, the base often enlarged; "white to pale yellow above the ring, white to yellow, buff, or grayish-tinged below", base often with orangish, reddish or brown stains inside or outside, (Arora), widening slightly downward, stuffed; white; smooth or slightly woolly, (Phillips), fibrillose to scaly toward base, smooth when old, (Lindgren), VOLVA powdery, friable universal veil forms "a scaly volva (scaly zones and / or yellow to grayish-yellow powdery scales)" at base of stem, but volva easily obliterated, (Arora), "mealy pieces of yellow tissue may form rings at the base or be left in the soil", (Lindgren), volva in the form of concentric rings of tissue on base, "rarely with a free collar at top of bulb", (Goetz, D.)

Veil:
universal veil yellow, forming rows of concentric warts on cap, stem base "girdled with veil remnants, distinctly rufescent in age"; ring "superior, membranous, pendant, upper surface distinctly striate, thinning, but rarely collapsing with age, typically fimbriate, pale yellow to yellow on both sides", developing darker yellow brown zones when old, (Bojantchev), forming membranous, superior, skirt-like ring that is white to pale yellow on upper surface, bright yellow to grayish yellow on underside, (Arora), ring with faint striations on upper surface (Goetz, D.), ring usually with felty gray to yellow patches on the edge, (Ammirati)

Odor:
mild (Bojantchev), faint, not distinctive (Phillips)

Taste:
mild (Bojantchev), not distinct (Lindgren)

Microscopic spores:
spores (7.8)8.5-9.3(11.2) x (5.2)6.0-6.8(7.8) microns, broadly elliptic to elliptic, "slight to distinctly inequilateral in 30-40% of the cases, with a prominent lateral apiculus", amyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 35-62 x 8-12 microns, clavate; marginal cells on gills 10-33 x 7-21 microns, "subglobose to sphaeropedunculate"; clamp connections not observed, (Bojantchev), spores 8-12 x 6-8 microns, elliptic, smooth, amyloid (Arora), spores 7-10 x 5.5-7 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, amyloid; basidia 4-spored; pleurocystidia not differentiated, cheilocystidia scattered to abundant, 38-48 x 9-15 microns, subcapitate, thin-walled and readily collapsing; gill trama divergent from a central strand, the cells short and broad, inamyloid; cap trama floccose beneath thin gelatinous pellicle, inamyloid, (Smith(48))

Spore deposit:
white (Bojantchev, Arora)

Notes:
Collections were examined from CA, OR, WA, and AK (Bojantchev). It is reported from ID by Andrew Parker, pers. comm., and is frequent on foray lists from BC (in both cases as Amanita franchetii). Kroeger(5) reported it from Haida Gwaii in BC.

EDIBILITY

avoid (Arora)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Amanita franchetii sensu auct. mult. (misapplied name)