Amanita Pantherina
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What is Amanita Pantherina?
Amanita pantherina, also known as the panther cap, false blusher, and the panther amanita due to its similarity to the true blusher (Amanita rubescens), is a species of fungus found in Europe and Western Asia.
- Cap: 5–18 cm wide, hemispheric at first, then convex to plano-convex, deep brown to hazel-brown to pale ochraceous brown, densely distributed warts that are pure white to sordid cream, minutely verruculose, floccose, easily removable. Viscid when wet, with a short striate margin. The flesh is white, unchanging when injured.
- Gills: adnexed to free, close to crowded, white becoming greyish, truncate.
- Spores: white in deposit, smooth, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid to elongate, inamyloid, infrequently globose. 8–14 x 6–10 µm.
- Stipe: 5–15 cm long × .6–3 cm wide,[2] subcylindric, somewhat narrowing upward, white, becoming slightly tannish in age, stuffed then hollow, finely floccose becoming smooth above the ring, and with small appressed squamules or creamy floccose material below. The volva is white, becoming grey with age, forming one or sometimes two narrow hoop-like rings just above the bulbous base. The flesh is white, unchanging when injured.
- Odour: Unpleasant or like raw potatoes. Other than the brownish cap with white warts, distinguishing features of Amanita pantherina include the collar-like roll of volval tissue at the top of the basal bulb, and the elliptical, inamyloid spores. Contrary to the Amanita rubescens the panther cap does not color red/pink ("blush") when the flesh is damaged, hence its name "false blusher". This is a key feature in differentiating both species.