One woodland ID please.

[sidewalkdoctor]

Found above Ventnor in an evergreen Holm oak wood, leaves like thisEvergreen Oak (Quercus ilex) . Very big, even when erupting from the leaf litter & growing on a 50-60 degree slope (slippery ) Sadly, many of them had already gone over...or were not readily accessible.


a


b


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d

[fairplay]

There are sufficient clues remaining for me to confidently ID these as Amanita strobiliformis, the best clue being the veil remnants around the cap edge and the large size.
The only thing worrying me is discrepancy's between descriptions - the common name is Warted Amanita and is illustrated showing scales on the cap, but other illustrations show it to be almost smooth as in your specimens.
Amanita solitaria would be covered in very obvious pyramidal warts on the cap, and A.phalloides var.alba and A.virosa, would be a smooth white on the cap.

Neil.

[stickman]

Hi all...

I've always thought that the smooth caps just had the veil remnants washed off by the rain (as is common with Amanita) but SWD's photos clearly show a smooth cap even in young specimens.

Which is odd.

Can one assume this is all within the accepted variability of this species?

Cheers, Nick.

[fairplay]

I have very little experience with Amanita strobiliformis, but it could be something to do with the substrate it is growing from and having to push through (leaves).
In a lot of cases the top of the sac or volva would be just above the surface so when the fungus pushes through the sac, it has remains of the sac - which at this stage would be called 'universal veil', attached to the cap surface.
But in the case where it splits the sac below the surface - in this case leaves, then pushing through the leaves could brush off veil remnants, leaving the cap smooth.

A similar action takes place with Battarrea phalloides (Sandy Stiltball) as this emerges from it's underground sac, it pushes the top of the sac up with it.
This 'cap' is to protect the damp spore mass beneath it, but sometimes this cap can get caught up in debris like twigs, leaves, etc. and becomes dislodged, and is not always seen.

Neil.

[stickman]

That explanation makes sense.

In fact when you look closely at SWD's first photo you can almost see the veil being 'peeled' off by the leaves. Maybe.

Nick.

[sidewalkdoctor]

Many thanks to both of you...