Amanita nehuta

*Amanita nehuta*
Mycological characteristics
Amanita nehuta Mycological characteristics
	gills on hymenium
	cap is flat or convex
	hymenium is free
	stipe has a volva
	spore print is white
	ecology is mycorrhizal

Amanita nehuta
	From Auckland, New Zealand
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Agaricomycetes
Order:	Agaricales
Family:	Amanitaceae
Genus:	Amanita
Species:	A. nehuta
Binomial name
	Amanita nehuta; (1991)

Amanita nehuta, also called Maori dust amanita, is a species of fungus in the family Amanitaceae. It was first described by New Zealand mycologist in 1991. It occurs in New Zealand in large number. It has only a dark ring rather than a universal veil and white spores. It is found under leptospermum and Nothofagus. It grows on ground usually in late summer. Its height is 110 mm and width is 100 mm.^[1]

Description[]

Closer view of the gills (left) and spores (right) of Amanita nehuta

The physical description is as follows:^[2] The cap is 25–65 mm wide, plano-convex to plano-depressed, buff, non-viscid, with a striate margin. The volval remnants are pulverulent on the center raised into wart-like peaksor warts or radial ridges, colored pale sepia. Gills are crowded and free, measure 6–7 millimeters wide, and appear white to pale buff. The short gills are subtruncate. Its stem, or stipe, is 20–75 × 4–11 millimeters, , exannulate, with a smooth to subfloccose upper stem and smooth lower stem. The surface is white, pale buff, or very pale grayish sepia in color like the cap. The basal bulb is clavate to bulbous, 10–16 mm in diameter. The base has a rim or band of powdery volva, the same color as on the cap. The stem has no ring.

The spores measure 6.5–9 × 5.5–8 (-8.5) µm and are subglobose to broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid and inamyloid. They are white in color. Clamps are absent at the bases of the basidia. The flesh is white, with a very pale area under the skin in the center.

Distribution and habitat[]

This species was originally described from Wellington, New Zealand, associated with many types of Nothofagus, Leptospermum, and Kunzea. It is also known from the South island of New Zealand.^[2]

Similar species[]

Amanita nehuta is said to be similar to Amanita farinosa, , Amanita subvaginata and . All these species appear to have a cap surface that gelatinizes late in development so that the volva remains intimately connected to the cap skin well into maturity of the fruiting body. For this reason, the cap often remains powdery looking well into maturity.^[2]