Summary:
Subgenus Amanita. Important fieldmarks are a creamy to pale yellow, golden yellow or buff cap with whitish warts, a free rim or collar at the top of the basal bulb, and a white stem, usually with a skirt-like membranous ring. |Amanita junquillea is a synonym of Amanita gemmata or possibly a variety of it. |Lindgren(1) includes Amanita gemmata group and she comments in the context of the Pacific Northwest (Latin names italicized) "This is probably another misused name. It actually covers a group of similar, but often variable, yellow capped, often small, summer to fall fruiting amanitas. If the specimen does not have an annulus, it is called A. gemmata var. exannulata. If the specimen has a double, nearly basal, annulus and a short, tapered, rooting base, it may be A. breckonii. This entire group is considered toxic. Some specimens also appear to merge with A. pantherina, as a whole color range from yellow to brown can be found in one group." |A more recent addition to Lindgren''s comments would be that the Amanita gemmata var. exannulata name may be misapplied and the name Amanita pseudobreckonii has been suggested as a provisional name in its place. |36 putative panther/gemmatas from BC were sequenced. 14 corresponded to a Tulloss(6) concept of pantherinoides; 22 were ''pseudobreckonii'', (D. Miller, pers. comm.).

Gills:
"adnate to adnexed or free, close"; white, (Arora)

Stem:
5-13cm x 0.5-2cm, widening downward or equal with an enlarged base; white or tinged yellowish; dry, usually smooth above ring, sometimes scaly below ring, (Arora), white to pale yellowish above ring, white below ring; smooth above the ring, longitudinally fibrillose to slightly floccose below the ring, (Breitenbach), VOLVA universal veil friable [crumbling easily] to somewhat cottony, white, usually forming a collar-like volva (free rim) at the top of basal bulb, "sometimes also with scaly zones above rim, or sometimes forming a thin sheath instead of a rim, or sometimes the volva more or less indistinct", (Arora), white or cream; cottony to smooth, (Lincoff)

Veil:
typically present (but absent in var. exannulata), membranous, white, forming a fragile, superior to median, skirt-like ring, or disappearing, (Arora), ring superior, orange-gray to yellowish white, (Goetz, D.)

Odor:
none (Breitenbach)

Taste:
mild, not distinctive, (Breitenbach)

Microscopic spores:
spores 8-13 x 6-9 microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid, (Arora), spores 8.7-11 x 5.5-8.5 microns, (Lincoff), spores 8.9-10.8 x 6.8-8.7 microns, nearly round to broadly elliptic, smooth; basidia 4-spored, 42-48 x 12-15 microns, clavate; pleurocystidia not seen, marginal cells not abundant, 15-30 x 12-17 microns, subglobose-vesicular; clamps absent from basidia and cap cuticle, (Breitenbach)

Spore deposit:
white (Arora)

Notes:
Breitenbach(4) give the distribution as North America and Europe. Amanita gemmata is reported specifically from BC in Redhead(5). There are collections at Oregon State University from WA, OR, and CA.

EDIBILITY

poisonous (Arora)