Mushroom Lingo #4: Universal Veil

Building off of last week’s discussion of partial veils, let’s talk the UNIVERSAL VEIL…

A universal veil is a membrane that fully covers the immature bodies of certain mushrooms. Sometimes it makes them look like they are bursting out of eggs:

As they mature, the universal veil disintegrates. How it disintegrates is what you want to watch for. Some universal veils leave “warts” on the cap, as in Amanita muscaria type mushrooms:

Others leave little to no trace on the cap, but a long-lasting sac (called a “volva”) around the base:

Still others leave no sac, but ringlets of tissue which adhere tightly to the stem.

The subtle differences can be maddening to figure out, but as I mentioned last week, partial and universal veils are good features to learn if you want to avoid poisonous mushrooms. Generally speaking, you don’t want to mess with a universal veil…