For quite a while Ive been puzzled by online and guidebook descriptions and observations of Agaricus augustus in southern Australia and particularly in Victoria. Nearly always these mushrooms described as augustus lack nearly all of its macroscopic (scaled golden cap, thick scales below the ring and robust size) and microscopic features.
So I was quite pleased to find this mushroom in Berwick, Victoria last year that seemed to fit at least the macroscopic features of American augustus rather than just its large size (specimen in question was 17cms).
This mushroom was growing on the edge of a gravel path with Pinus radiate and Silver Wattle (Acacia) in the immediate area. It smelled only mildy of almonds, had the persistent veil remnant skirt, thick scaling below that on the stipe, nice golden scaled cap and a beautiful gold staining on cutting that did not fade like phenol-containing species.
DNA extraction and sequencing placed this mushroom’s ITS sequence at 99% Agaricus augustus collections from asia via BLASTn
