Amanita Phalloides - Distribution and Habitat

Distribution and Habitat

The death cap is native to Europe, where it is widespread. It is found from the southern coastal regions of Scandinavia in the north, to Ireland in the west, east to Poland and western Russia, and south throughout the Balkans, in Italy, Spain and Portugal, and in Morocco and Algeria in north Africa. In west Asia it has been reported from forests of northern Iran. There are records from further east into Asia but these have yet to be confirmed as A. phalloides.

It is ectomycorrhizally associated with a number of tree species and is symbiotic with them. In Europe, these include a large number of hardwood and, less frequently, conifer species. It appears most commonly under oaks, but also under beeches, chestnuts, horse-chestnuts, birches, filberts, hornbeams, pines, and spruces. In other areas, A. phalloides may also be associated with these trees or with only some species and not others. In coastal California, for example, A. phalloides is associated with coast live oak, but not with the various coastal pine species, such as Monterey pine. In countries where it has been introduced, it has been restricted to those exotic trees with which it would associate in its natural range. There is, however, evidence of A. phalloides associating with hemlock and with genera of the Myrtaceae: Eucalyptus in Tanzania and Algeria, and Leptospermum and Kunzea in New Zealand. This suggests the species may have invasive potential.

By the end of the 19th century, Charles Horton Peck had reported A. phalloides in North America. However, in 1918, samples from the eastern United States were identified as being a distinct though similar species, A. brunnescens, by G. F. Atkinson of Cornell University. By the 1970s, it had become clear that A. phalloides actually does occur in the United States, apparently having been introduced from Europe alongside chestnuts, with populations on the West and East Coasts. Although a 2006 historical review concluded the East Coast populations were introduced, the origins of the West Coast populations remained unclear, owing to the scantiness of historical records. However, a 2009 genetic study provided strong evidence for the introduced status of the fungus on the west coast of North America.

Amanita phalloides has been conveyed to new countries across the Southern Hemisphere with the importation of hardwoods and conifers. Introduced oaks appear to have been the vector to Australia and South America; populations under oaks have been recorded from Melbourne and Canberra (where two people died in January 2012, of four who were poisoned) and Adelaide, as well as Uruguay. It has been recorded under other introduced trees in Argentina and Chile. Pine plantations are associated with the fungus in Tanzania and South Africa, where it is also found under oaks and poplars.