Mushroom: Amanita sp.

August 28^th, 2014 

Mushroom: Amanita sp.

Lumpkin County, Georgia

Mushroom Road

August 25th. 2012. We’d had quite a bit of rain over the weeks preceding this visit to the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge in Jones County, Georgia. We were leaving the NWR and driving northeast on Sugar Hill Road towards Hillsboro. Much of this road is shaded and has high embankments that stay moist with other areas in the refuge. The conditions had been perfect for mushrooms to grow.

 Our first sighting was this Pleurotus sp. growing on a tree trunk. It’s a gilled mushroom and is edible.

Amanita jacksonii (American Caesar’s mushroom) – a young by the side of the road, and 

half-opened mushrooms high on an embankment.

Another Amanita sp., possibly the Southern Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria var. persicina), from above, and a

closer view. It had a glossy cap as if someone had poured caramel sauce on it and then decorated it with the warts.

A polypore. The mushroom, the

Cap, showing the pores, and

the stem. Sometimes the topography of the stems is as fascinating as the caps and gills.

Another polypore. This one looked a little like a spaceship from a distance.

Up close, it looked like the surface of a planet.

A close view of the edge of the cap showing the pores again. I felt this mushroom and it had a spongy feel.

An orange mushroom that looked, superficially, like a chantarelle but which didn’t have distinct gills or pores but had an

underside that looked ‘powdery.’

A group of mushrooms belonging to Strobilomyces sp. related to the Old Man of the Woods mushroom (S. strobilaceus), possibly Strobilomyces confusus. This, also, is a

polyporous mushroom.

Next: The coral fungi on Sugar Hill Road

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Identification resources:

- University of Georgia, Department of Natural History: Georgia Basidiomycetes

Fort Yargo State Park: Amanita sp. In The Open

This Amanita sp. fruited in late October through early November along Segment 10. In contrast to the other species that fruited in the woods, this species fruited in open areas. I also saw it in Gwinnett County in the open at the edge of woods but couldn’t stop to get a closer look.
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Related posts:
- Mushroom: Yet Another Amanita sp.
- Mushroom: Another Amanita sp.
- Mushroom: Amanita sp.
- A Little Rain… Then Mushrooms

Mushroom: Yet Another Amanita sp.

This Amanita sp. also fruited in early-mid October. It had a light orange cap with white patches and is probably either an orange variant of Amanita muscaria or a look-alike. The caps of the fully opened mushrooms were 6 to 7 inches in diameter. These mushrooms occurred in fairly open wooded areas at the edge to the immediate north of the parking lot at the Fishing Area and just south of the bridge from the parking lot (Segment 13). I didn’t see them deeper in the woods where I found the previous amanitas.

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Related posts:
- Mushroom: Another Amanita sp.
- Mushroom: Amanita sp.
- A Little Rain… Then Mushrooms

Mushroom: Another Amanita sp.

Yet another Amanita sp. in the woods just north of the Fishing Area (Segment 12/13) at Fort Yargo State Park. This species fruited in early October. This one was pure white.

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The cap on this one was about 12 inches in diameter. This mushroom had been open for some time and discolored from leaves that had fallen on it during recent rainfall.
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Related posts:
- Mushroom: Amanita sp.
- A Little Rain… Then Mushrooms

Mushroom: Amanita sp.

The area north and just south of the Fishing Area (Segment 12/13) at Fort Yargo State Park has been an excellent site to view a wide variety of mushrooms – especially Amanita sp. – to the extent that I've nicknamed it ‘Amanita Heaven.’





This Amanita sp., which I think may be the Rag-veil Amanita (Amanita cineropannosa), fruited in mid to late September.

Related Post A Little Rain... Then Mushrooms
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