Amanita strobilipes Thongbai, Raspé & K.D. Hyde, sp. nov.
Index Fungorum number: IF 551651, Facesoffungi number: FoF 02073, Fig. 1
Etymology – Refers to base of stipe like a pine cone.
Holotype – MFLU 12–2246

Pileus 105 mm in diam., slightly convex then plane, pale gray or grayish white (1A2, 1C1) with dark gray (1E1, 1 F1) conical or pyramidal warts over the center, progressively becoming brownish gray (5D2, 5D3) squamules towards the margin, slightly pulverulent – flocculose, margin paler, lacking striations, slightly appendiculate, edge fibrillose, dry; context 1.5 mm thick at mid-radius, white. Lamellae sub-free to free, crowded; lamellulae attenuate, with more than 4 series, white to very pale ochraceous (1A1, 1A2). Stipe 120 × 20 mm, subcylindrical, bulbous, inflated near the pileus, surface mostly white to smoke gray, pale grayish below, covered with cottony-fibrillose pulverulence all over, which is easily lost when touched; context white, solid, unchanging when bruised. Bulb maximum 30 mm wide, spindle-shaped, covered with white to slightly ochraceous (1A1, 1A2) curved scales. Annulus membranous, fibrillose, fragile, white. Odour absent.

Lamellar trama bilateral; mediostratum 25 – 40 μm wide, mainly consisting of filamentous, 2 – 5 μm wide, branching hyphae; lateral stratum made up of intercalary inflated, 25 – 45 × 5 – 20 μm, connected with subhymenium. Subhymenium 20 – 30 μm thick, with three to four layers of subglobose to broadly ellipsoid cells. Basidia 30 – 55 × 9 – 11 μm, 4-spored, clavate, thin to slightly thick-walled, sterigmata 4 – 6μm long, clamps absent at base. Basidiospores (6.8) 7 – 8.2 – 9.8 (10.1) × (4.4) 5.2 – 5.6 – 6 (8.5) μm, Q = 1.04 – 1.46 – 1.87, (N = 40), ellipsoid to elongate, colourless, amyloid, smooth, thin-walled, with apiculus. Lamellar edge sterile, mainly consisting of subglobose to clavate, 12 – 20 × 4 – 8 μm, thinwalled cells, mixed with filamentous, 2 – 3 celled, brownish hyphae. Pileipellis 250 – 300 μm thick, composed of filamentous, subcylindric, occasionally branching, 3 – 8 μm wide, slightly gelatinized to gelatinized, hyphae, with pale yellow vacuolar pigments. Velar remnants from pileus consisting of abundant globose to ellipsoid, 30 – 60 × 25 – 65μm cells, sometimes mixed with cylindrical, branching, thin-walled, filamentous 1.5 – 7 μm wide, hyaline or with brownish to yellowish pigments hyphae with terminal inflated cells. Annulus composed of clavate, 42 – 71 × 16 – 32μm to cylindrical, 36 – 50 × 9 – 15 μm cells, with brownish to yellowish pigments. No clamps observed in any tissue.

Habitat– Terrestrial in forest with Fagaceae species.

Material examined– THAILAND, Chiang Mai Province, Mae Taeng District, Mushroom Research Center, N19° 07.20′ E98°44.04′, 25 June 2012, collector B. Thongbai, BZ–2012–22 (MFLU 12–2246, holotype)

Notes– Amanita strobilipes is a member of Amanita subgenus Lepidella (J.-E. Gilbert) Veselý emend section Lepidella (Bas 1969) subsection Solitariae. The pale gray or grayish white pileus with brownish gray squamules on the surface, pyramidal dark gray warts over the center, whitish stipe covered with white gray to grayish cottony-fibrillose pulverulence, white to slightly ochraceous, recurved scales on the spindle-shaped bulb, and amyloid, ellipsoid to elongate basidiospores characterize this species. Within the subsection Solitariae, the morphologically most similar species is Amanita griseoverrucosa Zhu L. Yang, originally described from China. Both species share some similarities, namely the pale gray or grayish white pileus. However, A. griseoverrucosa produces larger basidiomes, wider basidiospores and the pileus of A. strobilipes is more distinctively covered with dark gray pyramidal warts to brownish gray squamules. Amanita strobilipes also can easily be differentiated from A. griseoverrucosa by its distinctively spindleshaped bulb, covered with white to slightly ochraceous, curved scales, whereas A. griseoverrucosa has a rather ventricose to subglobose, subradicate bulb, with the upper part covered with grey to greyish warts or irregularly formed velar remnants. Amanita cinereopannosa Bas, originally described from the USA, resembles A. strobilipes in the ellipsoid to elongate basidiospores, a subcylindric stipe and grayish white pileus. However, in A. cinereopannosa the pileus is covered with rather abundant, soft, pulverulent-subfelty, low irregular warts, to flat or more angular patches. Additionally, the upper part of bulb of A. cinereopannosa is usually covered with a few transverse bands or concentric rows of greyish flocculosepulverulent patches. Another species that shares some similarities is A. heishidingensis Fang Li & Qing Cai, originally described from China, which also shows dark gray pyramidal warts on the pileus, a whitish stipe covered with white-gray to grayish cottony-fibrillose pulverulence, but its pileus is rather dirty white to whitish and viscid, the bulb is larger and napiform, subclavate to ventricose. Moreover, A. heishidingensis appears not to be very closely phylogenetically related to A. strobilipes.

Fig. 1 Amanita strobilipes (holotype) a, b Basidiome c Basidia and subhymenium d Basidiospores e Longitudinal section of velar remnants from pileus. Scale bars: a, b = 20 mm, c = 20 μm, d = 10 μm.