Short Communication Two new records of gilled mushrooms of the genus Amanita (Agaricales: Amanitaceae) from India

Two new records of Amanita constricta and Amanita velosa from India are reported for the first time from sal Shorea robusta forest of central India. Earlier Amanita constricta was reported from USA and Canada, while A. velosa was reported from USA and Mexico. The reported species are edible but they should be taken with caution as at least two deadly Amanitas with saccate type volvas are known. A. velosa grows in open areas.


PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS
The genus Amanita belongs to family Amanitaceae, order Agaricales, class Agaricomycetes of Basidiomycetous fungi. The family contains of eight genera, namely, Amanita, Amanitopsis, Amarrendia, Catatrama, Limacella, Saproamanita and Torrendia . This group of mushroom comprises of edible as well as deadly poisonous species. Mushroom poisoning is a perennial problem in India where mushroom collection from the wild is common. The majority of mushroom poisoning occurs due to misidentification of edible variety. Recently, diversities of macro-fungi were studied and many fungi were reported from central Indian region including two new records of Amanita bisporigera and A. pantherina from sal Shorea robusta forests .
The present article reports two new records of amanitaceous mushrooms, Amanita constricta and Amanita velosa, from sal forests of Dindori (Madhya Pradesh) of central India.

Materials and Methods Study site
Sal forest of Dindori District of Madhya Pradesh (22.569 0 N and 81.371 0 E) was selected for study of Amanita mushrooms. In addition, sal forest of Bajag forest range (Chada Road) of Madhya Pradesh was also surveyed for amanitaceous mushrooms.

Collection and processing of mushroom
Specimens of mushrooms were collected from selected forests of Madhya Pradesh during rainy season (July 2018). Collected samples were preserved immediately in 70% alcohol after collection for microscopic study. The fruit bodies of fungi were dried under the sun or in wooden box lit with 100W electric bulb.
Cap brownish-gray, often with inconspicuous dark radial streaks. Flesh usually white, sometimes becoming faintly pinkish with exposure. Volva mainly present as a membranous fibrillose patch over the umbo; white to buff to smoke gray-brownsalmon color. Gills are close to crowded, adnate to decurrent by a short hook when young, becoming free, white at first, becoming gray, and drying tan to sordid tan to brownish gray. Gills are moderately broad with the edge usually gray and fibrillose. The stipe is 6-9cm long x 1-1.5cm wide, white, cylindric or narrowing upward, and exannulate. Hyphae 2.5-7.5µm wide. Basidia 37-Image 1. Amanita constricta: A-habits | B-details of sporophore.

Mycol. Writ., 1898 (Images 3-4) ≡ Amanitopsis velosa Peck
The cap is 3-7cm which is pale yellowish-orange to pale orangish, pale orange or yellowish-orange to brownish orange, sometimes becoming paler toward margin; margin conspicuously grooved or striate, surface viscid when moist, smooth, pinkish-buff to orange-buff, fading with age, white, without staining. The pigment is sometimes washed out entirely by heavy rain; the fleshy cap lacks an umbo. The stipe is 2-8 × 1.5-2.0cm white to pale orange-white above, white below; it bears a robust, white, membranous, sack-like volva with pointed scales, tapering to an enlarged base; surface white, smooth to pruinose above, sometimes scaly below, universal veil forming a membranous, white cup-like volva at the base. The gills are free to narrowly adnate, crowded, off-white to pale cream to pale orangish cream in mass, with some reverse forking and anastomosing present; the short gills are more or less truncate, plentiful, unevenly distributed, of diverse lengths, occasionally adjacent to the stipe as well as to the margin. Gills close, white, sometimes with pinkish tones in age, attachment variable: free to slightly adnate or adnexed. Basidia 37.5-40.0 x 7.5-12.5 µm, sterigmata 3.7-5.0 µm, clamps are not present at bases of basidia. Basidiospores, sub-globose to broadly ellipsoid, smooth-walled, inamyloid, hyaline, measuring 7.5-12.5 x 6.2-8.5µm; spore print white.

Discussion
Amanita constricta was earlier recorded on the Pacific coastal hardwood species such as oak, arbutus or madrone (family Ericaceae) and Douglas fir, Pseudotsuga sp.), it grows singly or in scattered form during December-January. The species is distributed in California and extends into southwestern Canada (Thiers & Ammirati 1982). A. velosa was recorded earlier from oak Quercus agrifolia and coast live oak from Oregon and California (USA) and Baja, California Peninsula, Mexico (Lloyd 1898). Other species of Amanita reported from India and recorded in sal forests are: A. banningiana, A. bisporigera, A. chepangiana, A. ocreata, A. pantherina, A. populiphila, A. shorea and A. vaginata. Among them A. bisporigera and A. pantherina were distributed in sal forest of Dindori, Madhya Pradesh (Verma & Pandro 2018). A. chepangiana is recorded from forests dominated by Shorea robusta and Tectona grandis and oak from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh (Semwal et al. 2014), A. shorea was grown in pure sal forest of Himachal Pradesh (Singh & Kaur 2016 (Semwal et al. 2014;Vrinda et al. 2005a). Amanita constricta and Amanita velosa were collected from sal forest of Bajag, Dindori, Madhya Pradesh (India) in the present study. A. ceciliae and A. pachycolea, A. submembranacea and A. vaginata are comparable to A. constricta. A. constricta showed some similarity with A. ceciliae but the latter has bigger caps (5-12 cm) with grayish patches and longer stipe (7-18 cm). A. pachycolea also has bigger caps (7-18 cm), longer stipe (10-25 cm) and broader spores (9-14 x 9-12 µm). A. submembranacea differed in cap size (11.5cm) with olivaceous-pallid margin and roughly spherical spores. A. vaginata differ with A. constricta in having longer stipe (7-15 cm) with subglobose spores (8-12 µm).
Amanita velosa is an edible mushroom grows solitary to scattered during rainy season (collected on 19 July 2018) and fruit bodies were recorded in open areas of sal forest. About 20-25 fruit bodies were recorded in 25m squire area on forest ground. A. velosa showed some similarity with deadly poisonous mushroom, A. ocreata, but it differed in cap size (A. ocreata cap reach up to 12cm in diameter). The stipe in A. ocreata are also longer (8-20 cm) with relatively broader spores (9-14 x 7-10 μm).
So far, a total of 73 species of Amanita are recorded from India  whereas 1,550 names were proposed under the genus Amanita from the world as indicated in the index fungorum. (http://www. indexfungorum.org).