How to tell Common stinkhorn from Death cap

The death cap's cap is 5–15 cm across. In young mushrooms it is hemispherical, later becoming flat and spread out.

The color varies from olive green and yellowish green to grayish and almost white — which is what makes identification tricky. The surface is smooth, slightly slimy in wet weather, with a characteristic radial pattern of darker fibers spreading from the center. The cap margin is even, without striations.

At the egg stage — a white or cream sphere 4-6 cm across with a thick, slimy skin. In the mature mushroom — a bell-shaped cap 3-5 cm tall, covered in dark olive or greenish-brown slimy gleba with a honeycomb structure.

The hymenophore is lamellate. The gills are crowded, thin and free — not attached to the stem. In both young and mature mushrooms they stay pure white — this is a critical diagnostic feature.

Not a hint of pink, cream or ochre, as in true Agaricus mushrooms. The gap between the gills and the stem is clearly defined. The veil is white and membranous, completely covering the hymenophore in young specimens.

The hymenophor is a slimy gleba on the cap surface. The spores are tiny and are carried by flies drawn to the powerful carrion smell — a specialized dispersal mechanism of the stinkhorn family.

The stem is slender, 7–15 cm tall and 1–2 cm thick. Cylindrical, widening at the base into a characteristic club-shaped bulb wrapped in a membranous sack-like volva — the main diagnostic feature.

The color is whitish green, often with a snakeskin pattern of faint bands. In the upper third there's a well-developed, hanging white ring with remnants of the veil. The surface below the ring is faintly scaly.

Stem 12-22 cm tall, 2-4 cm thick, white or cream, cylindrical, hollow inside. The surface is spongy, delicate and brittle. It grows out of the egg in 2-4 hours — one of the fastest growth rates among fungi.

The flesh is white and doesn't change color when cut — and that's the treacherous part: none of the safety signs foragers are used to relying on work here. The flesh is thin and brittle in the cap, fleshy at the base of the stem.

It doesn't change color on contact with air, neither after a minute nor after an hour. No "lovely white flesh" should reassure you — it's precisely in the white flesh of the death cap that the concentration of amanitins is highest.

At the egg stage — white with a greenish gelatinous layer under the skin, firm, with a delicate taste. In the mature mushroom — spongy, brittle, white. Does not change color when cut.

The smell of a fresh mushroom is faint and hard to notice; in young specimens it's almost absent. Mature ones develop a slight sickly-sweet note, like wilted honey or stale dough.

This aroma isn't distinct enough to warn an inexperienced forager. Like other poisonous amanitas (the fly agaric, the panther cap), the death cap has only a faint, indistinct smell that gives no warning — yet another treacherous trait. A stronger odor appears only in rotting specimens.

In a young egg — faint, barely mushroomy, with a hint of radish. In the mature mushroom — extremely strong and unpleasant, reminiscent of carrion or rotting meat. The smell travels tens of meters through the air and attracts flies that spread the spores.