How to tell Fly agaric from Jewelled amanita

The cap is 8–20 cm across, egg-shaped when young, then flattened-convex or almost flat. It's bright red or orange-red, fading to orange in old mushrooms, and covered with white or yellowish warts, the remnants of the universal veil (rain washes them off easily).

The cap is 4 to 10 cm across, occasionally up to 12 cm. It starts convex, almost bell-shaped, then opens out flat, sometimes with a slight dip in the middle.

The colour runs from pale straw to bright egg-yolk yellow, usually darker and more ochre in the centre, and older caps fade to cream. The surface is slightly sticky in wet weather. Flat white flakes, the remains of the universal veil, sit on top, thickest in the centre. They come off easily and rain washes them away, so a cap can be completely smooth. The margin of a mature cap is grooved, with short lines like the teeth of a comb.

The gills are free, crowded and white, and don't change colour. Spore print white. White gills combined with a red cap, a ring and a volva are a reliable set of amanita features.

The gills are free or only just touch the stem, crowded, soft and white, and may turn slightly yellowish in old specimens.

The spore print is white. The spores are smooth and broadly ellipsoid, roughly 8–11 × 6.5–8.5 µm, but that only shows under a microscope.

The stem is 8–18 cm tall and 1.5–2.5 cm thick, white and cylindrical, with a swollen, bulbous base. High on the stem there's a well-developed membranous ring, and at the base a volva that breaks up into several rings of warts on the bulb, often hidden in the soil.

The stem is slender, 5 to 12 cm long and 0.5 to 1.5 cm thick, white or pale yellowish, smooth or finely downy, and fragile.

The ring is thin and membranous, like a little skirt, and sits halfway down the stem or lower. It doesn't last: often all that's left is a faint mark, and old specimens may have no ring at all. So a missing ring doesn't mean it isn't an amanita.

At the bottom the stem has a small rounded bulb. The volva hugs it tightly and ends in a narrow free collar at the top, sometimes broken into one or two rings or flakes. It isn't a tall sack as in the grisettes, nor a large, abruptly cut-off bulb as in the false death cap. The bulb is often sunk in the soil, so the mushroom needs to be dug up.

The flesh is soft and white, yellowish under the cap skin, and doesn't change colour when cut. No distinctive smell. Even flesh with no smell and no sharp taste contains toxic isoxazoles.

The flesh is white, sometimes slightly yellowish in the stem, thin, and doesn't change colour when cut.

The smell is faint, neutral or slightly sweetish. That very lack of an off-putting smell is part of the fly agaric's “trap”: the mushroom looks attractive and its smell doesn't warn you off.

The smell is faint, hardly noticeable. Some authors mention a slight radish note, but most field guides say there's no distinctive smell. The only lookalike you can tell by smell is the false death cap, which smells of raw potato.