Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
WHITE SPORE PRINT<br />
flesh is about 1/4 inch thick near the stem, white, firm, and brittle<br />
in fresh specimens but rather soft and limp in old ones. At the<br />
top the stem is 1/4 inch or more in thickness, increasing in diameter<br />
toward the base, and is white and brittle. The spherical base<br />
is buried beneath the surface of the ground; therefore the soft<br />
white volva surrounding it is usually visible only if one digs up<br />
the whole plant. The veil that connects the edge of the young,<br />
unexpanded cap with the stem breaks as the cap expands and<br />
forms a ring on the stem. This ring is at first fairly prominent and<br />
has narrow, parallel, radial furrows on the upper side, but it soon<br />
withers and eventually may disappear completely.<br />
In other words, of the two characteristics usually cited as typical<br />
of the genus Amanita the volva of this species is concealed beneath<br />
the surface of the ground and can easily be missed, and the<br />
ring is evanescent, being visible as a definite ring only in comparatively<br />
fresh young specimens.<br />
Figure 6. Amanita phalloides (Death Cap). Poisonous. Figure 7.<br />
A. verna. Poisonous. The ring has already disappeared<br />
from the one on the left.<br />
29
Change language