Blusher or Grey spotted amanita

The cap is 5-15 cm across, hemispherical when young, later convex to flat. It's pinkish grey-brown, brownish pink or brick-coloured, darker in young mushrooms and paler in old ones, and dotted with noticeable whitish-greyish wartlike scales (remnants of the universal veil) scattered unevenly. It's slightly sticky in wet weather. The margin is smooth.

The cap is 6–15 cm across, usually about 10. Young caps are hemispherical, then convex, and finally almost flat. The colour is grey-brown, from ash grey to hazel brown, darker in the centre. The surface is slightly sticky when wet and silky when dry.

It carries remnants of the universal veil: flat grey or dirty white patches and mealy flakes, not the pure white raised dots of the panther cap. They rub off with a finger and wash off in rain, so old caps can be almost bare. The edge is smooth, without grooves.

The gills are free and whitish, turning pink over time where damaged. The spore print is white.

The gills are white, becoming cream or greyish white with age, and crowded, with short gills in between. They are free or only narrowly attached to the stem.

The spore print is white. Under the microscope the spores are amyloid, turning blue-black in iodine, while the panther cap's are not; that isn't something you can check in the wood.

The stem is 6-12 cm tall and 1-2 cm thick, cylindrical, with a distinct bulbous swelling at the base. It's whitish above, with pink or reddish tints lower down. Near the top is a white, pinkish-tinged ring with lengthwise grooves. The volva is indistinct: rather than a sac, it shows as concentric pinkish-white warts on the swollen base.

The stem is 8–12 cm tall, sometimes 15, and 1.5–3 cm thick, white or pale grey, and stockier than the panther cap's. It is finely lined above the ring and covered in whitish flakes arranged in bands below it.

The ring is large, membranous, white or greyish, and hangs high, just under the cap. Its upper surface has fine grooves running towards the gills. The panther cap's ring is smooth and lower.

The base swells into a turnip-shaped bulb that merges gradually into the stem, with two or three faint belts of grey flakes. There is no loose sack like the death cap's and no sharp rim like the panther cap's. You'll only see this if you dig the mushroom out rather than cutting it.

The flesh is white and slowly (over 1-5 min) turns pink to wine-red when cut; this is the main diagnostic feature of the species. It turns pinkest where slugs or insects have been feeding, and in an old mushroom the whole lower stem is wine-pink inside. The smell is faint and pleasantly mushroomy.

The flesh is white and firm, greyish just under the cap skin. It doesn't turn pink or red when cut, which separates it from the blusher. Some authors note that it darkens slightly on cutting. The taste is unremarkable and slightly sweet, turning radishy in older specimens.

Faint and pleasantly mushroomy, with nothing distinctive. Old mushrooms have a slight winey note.

The smell is faint, often with a note of radish or raw turnip, and some specimens hardly smell at all. Don't rely on smell: the panther cap's bruised flesh also smells faintly of radish.