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Strangulated Amanita
Scientific Name: Amanita inaurata
Family Name: Amanitaceae
Edibility: Inedible
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Description: Dark brown cap with radially furrowed margin; charcoal patches on cap and base. Cap: 2 - 5 inches (5-12.5 cm) wide; egg-shaped, becoming convex to flat with low knob; margin radially furrowed; tacky, brownish-black to brownish-gray, with loose, charcoal patches. Gills: free, close, white. Stalk: 2 - 6 inches (5-15 cm) long, 3/8-5/8 inch (1-1.5 cm) thick, sometimes enlarged toward base; with grayish hairs, often in chevronlike pattern, and with charcoal veil remnants about base. Veil: universal veil pale gray to charcoal; leaving patches on cap and evanescent, saclike cup about stalk base, soon disintegrating into patches. No partial veil. Spores; 11.5-14 microns; round; smooth, colorless, nonamyloid. Spore print white. Season: July-October; November-March in California. Habitat: On the ground under conifers, especially eastern hemlock; also in open mixed woods and wooded urban parks. Range: Throughout North America. Comments: Formerly known as Amanitopsis strangulata, its name refers to the tight belt of grayish veil tissue about the stalk base. Like many common fungi, this should not be eaten because it is probably a complex of closely related species, and it is not known if all the forms are edible. [Lincoff, Gary H., The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1981]