Amanita Persoon ex Hooker
Flora Scotland 2: 19. 1821.

Amanita is a genus of mostly medium to large gilled mushrooms. The most famous member of the genus is the red capped, white warted, "fly agaric" (Amanita muscaria). Amanita contains the world's most deadly mushrooms (A. phalloides, A. virosa) and some excellent edible mushrooms.

Principle characteristics of the genus Amanita:

• Spore deposit white
• Lamellae free
• Universal veil present, usually leaving warts or patches on the pileus and a fugacious to membranous volva
• Stipe is clearly separable from pileus
• Lamellular trama divergent

Keys and descriptions of the genus Amanita:

• Rod Tulloss: Amanita Studies
• Rod Tulloss: Amanita found in the Pacific coastal states of the U.S. and neighboring regions
• Pacific Northwest Key Council (Janet Lindgren): Trial key to the species of Amanita in the Pacific Northwest
• C. Bas: A broader view on Amanita
• Rod Tulloss: Notes on Methodology for Study of Amanita
• Thiers, H.D. (1982). The Agaricales (Gilled Fungi) of California. 1. Amanitaceae. Mad River Press: Eureka, CA.
• Jenkins, D.T. (1986). Amanita of North America. Mad River Press: Eureka, CA.
• Bas, C. (1969). Morphology and Subdivision of Amanita and a Mongraph of its Section Lepidella. Persoonia 5: 285-579.
• Jenkins, D. T. 1977. A taxonomic and nomenclatural study of the genus Amanita sect. Amanita for North America. Biblio. Mycol. 57: 1-126.

Amanita species known to occur in California:

1. Amanita bivolvata
2. Amanita breckonii
3. Amanita californica
4. Amanita cokeri
5. Amanita constricta
6. Amanita farinosa
7. Amanita franchetii
8. Amanita gemmata
   1. var. exannulata
   2. var. gemmata
9. Amanita lanei
10. Amanita magniverrucata
11. Amanita muscaria
    1. var. alba
    2. var. flavivolvata
    3. var. formosa
    4. var. muscaria
12. Amanita novinupta
13. Amanita ocreata
14. Amanita pachycolea
15. Amanita pantherina
16. Amanita phalloides
17. Amanita porphyria
18. Amanita protecta
19. Amanita silvicola
20. Amanita smithiana
21. Amanita vaginata
22. Amanita velosa