Amanita

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Amanita

The genus

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
Amanita contains about 600 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of agarics including some of the most toxic known mushrooms found worldwide. This genus is responsible for approximately 95% of the fatalities resulting from mushroom poisoning

Mushroom poisoning

Mushroom poisoning, also known as mycetism, refers to deleterious effects from ingestion of toxic substances present in a mushroom. These symptoms can vary from slight Gastrointestinal tract discomfort to death....
, with the death cap

Death cap

'Amanita phalloides' , commonly known as the 'death cap', is a poisonous basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita. Widely distributed across Europe, A....
accounting for about 50% on its own. The most potent toxin present in these mushrooms is alpha-amanitin

Alpha-amanitin

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Encyclopedia

The genus

Genus

Species

Mushroom poisoning

Death cap

Alpha-amanitin

alpha-Amanitin or a-amanitin is a Cyclic compound peptide of eight amino acids. It is possibly the most deadly of all the amatoxins, toxins found in several members of the Amanita genus of mushrooms, one being the Death cap as well as the Destroying angel, a complex of similar species, principally A....
.

The genus also contains many edible mushrooms, but mycologists generally discourage amateur mushroom hunters from selecting these for human consumption. Nonetheless, in some cultures, the larger local edible species of Amanita are mainstays of the markets in the local growing season. Samples of this are Amanita zambiana and other fleshy species in central Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, A. basii and similar species in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, A. caesarea in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, and A. chepangiana in South-East Asia. Other species are used for colouring sauces, such as the red A. jacksonii with a range from eastern Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
to eastern Mexico

Mexico

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
where many fungi are little-known. Understandably, this is not a genus that lends itself to safe experimentation.

Taxonomy

The name is possibly derived from Amanon, a mountain in Cilicia

Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia now known as ?ukurova, was a commonly used name of the south coastal region of the Anatolian peninsula, and a political entity in Roman times....
.

A first incarnation from Tentamen dispositionis methodicae Fungorum 65. 1797 is cited as devalidated: "Introduced to cover three groups already previously distinguished by Christian Hendrik Persoon

Christian Hendrik Persoon

Christiaan Hendrik Persoon was a mycologist who made additions to Carolus Linnaeus' mushroom taxonomy....
(in [...] Tent. 18. 1797) under Agaricus L., but at that time not named. It is worth stressing that the species now known as Amanita caesarea was not mentioned."

With Agaricus
Agaricus

Agaricus is a large and important genus of mushrooms containing both edible and poisonous species, with possibly over 300 members worldwide....
L. in use, Amanita was a nomen nudum
Nomen nudum

The phrase nomen nudum is a Latin language term, meaning "naked name". In taxonomy, this is used to indicate a term or phrase which looks like a scientific name, and may well have been intended to become a scientific name, but fails to be one because it was not published with an adequate description , and thus is "bare" or "naked"....
per modern standard, so Persoon gave it a new life unrelated to its previous incarnations, and that is finally published after a starting date by Hooker (the citation is Pers. per Hook., 1821). He reuses Withering's 1801 definition (A botanical arrangement of British plants, 4th ed.). "The name Amanita has been considered validly published on different occasions, depending on various considerations." Proposed types include (given as Amanita. Sometimes they were selected as Agarici):

A. livida Pers. (By Earle, in 1909). Had been excluded in Vaginata or Amanitopsis and could not be chosen.
A. muscaria
Amanita muscaria

Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly Amanita, is a poisonous and psychoactive basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita....
Pers. (By Clemens & Shear, 1931) for the genus (1801) from Synopsis fungorum, was generally transferred to the one from Hooker's Flora of Scotland, which is currently considered the valid publication of Amanita (or was in the 50s).
A. phalloides (by Singer, 1936) for the 1801 genus.
A. bulbosa (by Singer & Smith, 1946) for Gray's republication. This is incorrect as Gray's A. bulbosa is a synonym of A. citrina. Some authors consider Gray to be the first valid republisher.
A. caesarea
Amanita caesarea

Amanita caesarea, commonly known in English as Caesar's Mushroom, is a highly regarded edible mushroom in the genus Amanita, native to southern Europe and North Africa....
(by Gilbert, 1940). Troublesome because not known personally to Persoon or Fries.

Donk concludes the earliest valid type is A. muscaria, the species in Hooker, adding that he'd personally favor A. citrina.

The name has been republished three times in 1821: in Hooker, Roques and Gray (in that order). Roques maintained Persoon's circumscription, including Amanitopsis and Volvaria. Gray excluded Amanitopsis and Volvariella into Vaginata. Right after, Fries reset the name by reducing the genus to a tribe of Agaricus, minus pink-spored Volvariella
Volvariella

Volvariella is a genus of mushrooms with pink gills and spore prints. They lack a ring, and have an Amanita-like volva at the stem base. Some species of Amanita look similar, but Amanita has white spores and often have a ring....
. This tribe became a subgenus, than genus via various authors, Quélet

Lucien Quélet

Lucien Qu?let was a world-renowned France mycologist and natural history who discovered several species and was the founder of the Soci?t? mycologique de France, a society devoted to mycological studies....
, although not the first, often being attributed the change. Sometimes it was used in a Persoonian sense (whether that is a correct use according to ICBN is not clear).

Homonyms of Amanita Pers. are Amanita adans. (1763, devalidated) and Amanita (Dill) Rafin. (1830)

Toxicity

Several members of the section Phalloidieae are notable for their toxicity, containing toxins known as amatoxins which can cause liver failure and death. These include the death cap A. phalloides, species known as destroying angels including A. virosa
Amanita virosa

Amanita virosa, commonly known as the destroying angel or more precisely as European destroying angel, is a poisonous basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita....
, A. bisporigera
Destroying angel

The name destroying angel applies to several similar, closely related species of deadly all-white mushrooms in the genus Amanita. They are Amanita bisporigera and Amanita ocreata in eastern and western North America, and Amanita virosa in Europe....
and A. ocreata
Amanita ocreata

Amanita ocreata, commonly known as the death angel, destroying angel or more precisely Western North American destroying angel, is a poisonous basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita....
and the fool's mushroom A. verna
Amanita verna

Amanita verna, commonly known as the fool's mushroom or the mushroom fool, is a poisonous basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita....
.

More recently, a series in the subgenus Lepidella have been found to cause acute renal failure, including A. smithiana
Amanita smithiana

Amanita smithiana is a species of agaric found on soil in coniferous and broadleaved woodland in the Pacific Northwest of North America. It fruits in August and September....
of Northwestern North America, A. pseudoporphyria of Japan, and A. proxima of southern Europe.

External links

- AmericanMushrooms.com.
– Comprehensive listing of the nearly 600 named Amanita species with photos and/or technical details on over 510 species.
by Michael Kuo, MushroomExpert.Com, March 2005.

Amanita

Taxonomy

Toxicity

See also

External links