Amanita caesarea (Scop.:Fr.) Pers. (original) (raw)

Amanita caesarea (Scop.:Fr.) Pers.
"Caesar"

Technical description (t.b.d.)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: t.b.d.

The spores measure (8.0-) 8.8 - 12.8 (-17.8) x (5.3-) 6.3 - 8.5 (-14.3) �m and are inamyloid and ellipsoid to elongate (occasionally broadly ellipsoid). Clamps are present at bases of the basidia.

White and pallid specimens of this species are sometimes assigned to separate forma (A. caesarea f. alba (Gillet) E. J. Gilbert). My correspondents tell me that white fruiting bodies are only found among pigmented ones. Hence, it seems probable they all arise from the same hymenium; and there is no need to create a separate taxon.

Amanita caesarea is a species of the Mediterranean Region, where it is a widely desired edible. In the Americas there are very similar sister species known primarily from Mexico; together with_A. caesarea_, they form a distinct taxonomic group -- stirps Caesarea. While it has never been proven that all saccatae species with annulate stems are truly related to each other, it seems to be the case that the group of taxa with great similarity to Amanita hemibapha (Berk. & Broome) Sacc. (stirps Hemibapha) are related to stirps Caesarea -- based on microscopic mophological evidence as well as molecular evidence.

An example of the Mexican cluster is Amanita basii Guzm�n & Ram�rez-Guill�n (2001), like its European sister, a "market species." The authors of the latter species named five other species that belong to stirps Caesarea in the same publication in which A. basii was described. There appear to me to be two names each for only three distinct taxa. -- R. E. Tulloss

Photos: R. Le Tourneau (top left, France); Dr. Mido Traverso (top right, Italy); Ingr. Carmine Lavorato (middle left, Italy); Francis Massart (bottom, France).
Copy of plate: Bulliard, J. B. F., 1780-98, Herbier de la France, pl. 120 (middle right, France).

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Last changed 15 August 2004.
This page is maintained by R. E. Tulloss.
Copyright 2004 by Rodham E. Tulloss.
Photographs copyright 2004 by photographers as cited above.