Gurumelo

Overview

Gurumelo is the Spanish name for Amanita ponderosa, a wild agaric of the family Amanitaceae. It sits in the subgenus Amanitina and the section Amidella. The species was described by Malençon and R. Heim in 1944, and its English common name is heavy amidella.

Regional food use

The supplied record calls it a prized spring mushroom of Mediterranean tree-associated woodland on the Iberian Peninsula. Spain’s Real Decreto 30/2009 lists the species in Part A, the wild species that may be sold fresh, under the decree’s rules for mushrooms sold for food.

The decree does not describe a preparation for the species, and the sources read here do not record one.

Legal frame for Amanita

The same decree bans sale for human consumption of any mushroom considered poisonous or suspected of being so. It lists Amanita caesarea only with the volva open, and it bans Amanita muscaria, A. phalloides and A. virosa in any form. Its preamble says that mistaking similar species is the main cause of mushroom poisoning in Spain.

Identification risk

Amanita ponderosa belongs to a genus with fatal species, and the decree’s own preamble points to mistaken identity as the cause of most poisonings. This page gives no identification features and no verdict on any specimen.

Gather or eat no wild fungus on the strength of a catalogue listing, a description or a photograph. Identification needs a qualified expert, and the sources read here do not establish a safe preparation. Eat a wild Amanita only after a qualified local expert has confirmed the species.

Open questions

The sources read here do not establish its preparation, the stage at which it is eaten, its tree partners, or the reach of its trade. Spanish and Portuguese regional mycological and culinary sources would be needed to answer those.