A white, warted eastern North American Amanita named for the large, abrupt bulb at its stem base, which looks like a sliced egg stuck on the stem. It has a thick persistent ring and develops a rotting-meat odor with age. It is considered possibly toxic, with hepatotoxic effects shown in mice.
Possibly toxic; do not eat. Aqueous extracts were hepatotoxic in mouse studies, and the amino acid 2-amino-4,5-hexadienoic acid (allenic norleucine, also implicated in Amanita smithiana kidney poisonings) has been associated with the effect. Without its bulb it is easily confused with deadly white destroying angels.
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Habitat
Ectomycorrhizal with many trees, including beech, birch, fir, hemlock, oak and poplar, in mixed conifer-hardwood forests; usually solitary, summer and fall.
Distribution
Eastern North America from Quebec south to Mexico, common in the southeastern United States; O.K. Miller reported a find in the Dominican Republic under pines. Wikipedia also reports it from eastern Asia, but Japanese material once treated as this species is the distinct A. sphaerobulbosa (Yang & Doi 1999, per Wikipedia).
Characteristics
Cap: 4-10 cm, convex to flat, dry, white, covered with conical white to off-white warts that are smaller and denser near the margin. Gills: free or slightly attached, white to cream. Stem: 6-12 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm thick, white, with a thick persistent ring that may be double-edged; base a prominent, abrupt, sometimes chiseled bulb, often with white mycelial threads below. Flesh: white, not staining. Odor: not distinctive when young, unpleasant with age. Spore print: white. Spores: 6.5-9.5 x 5.5-8.5 µm, subglobose to broadly ellipsoid, amyloid.
