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| More Coker's Amanita Pictures |
Coker's Amanita
Scientific Name: Amanita cokeri
Family Name: Amanitaceae
Edibility: Inedible
Description: Large, white mushroom with pyramidal patches on cap, and rooting stalk with ring near top and rows of downcurved scales toward base. Cap: 2 - 6 inches (7.5-15 cm) wide; rounded, becoming convex to nearly flat; margin has hanging veil remnants, lacks radial grooves; tacky when wet, shiny when dry; ivory, with large, high, pyramidal, wartlike patches, more flat and cottony toward margin. Gills: free or somewhat attached, crowded, broad; white to yellowish or pink-tinged. Stalk: 5 - 8 inches (12.5-20 cm) long, 5/8 - 3/4 inch (1.5-2 cm) thick, with large, spindle-shaped, rooting bulb up to 2 inches (5 cm) wide; silky, white; often with concentric, downcurved scales toward base; solid or stuffed with a cottony web. Veils: universal veil whitish; leaving conical patches on cap and downcurved scales on lower stalk. Partial veil membranous, white; leaving large, pendant ring on upper stalk; ring grooved above, somewhat torn below. Spores: 11-13.5 X 7-9 microns; elliptical, smooth, colorless, amyloid. Spore print white. Season: July-November. Habitat: On the ground, in oak-pine woods. Range: New York to North Carolina, west to Indiana and Texas. Comments: There are 40 or more amanitas in North America with much the same structure, and all are classified together in section Lepidella of the genus Amanita. Most occur in the Southeast or in sandy oak-pine areas farther north; other species are found on the Pacific Coast. None should be eaten. [Lincoff, Gary H., The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1981]