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Smith's Amanita
Scientific Name: Amanita smithiana
Family Name: Amanitaceae
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Description: Large, white mushroom with patches on cap and torn ring on scaly, rooting stalk. Cap: 2 - 5 inches (5-12.5 cm) wide; round, convex, or flat; margin not radially grooved, with hanging veil remnants; tacky when wet; with cottony or feltlike, conical, white patches. Gills: slightly attached or free, crowded, rather broad; white to cream. Stalk: 4 - 8 inches (10-20 cm) long, 3/8 - 1-1/4 inch (1-3 cm) thick, enlarging downward to spindle-shaped bulb up to 2 inches (5 cm) wide; ragged, scaly, white. Veils: universal veil white to pale brown; leaving cottony, wartlike patches on cap and zones on stalk bulb. Partial veil cottony, fibrous, white; leaving ragged ring on upper stalk. Spores: 10.5-13.5 X 7-8 microns; elliptical, smooth, colorless, amyloid. Spore print white. Season: September-October. Habitat: On the ground in coniferous woods. Comments: This large, distinctive mushroom is a representative of the group called Amanita section Lepidella, whose members are most abundant and diverse in the Southeast. [Lincoff, Gary H., The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1981]