Grey veiled amanita or Grey spotted amanita

The cap is 5-10 cm across, hemispherical when young, becoming convex-flat with age. The colour is grey-purple, lilac-brown, with a violet tinge, darker in the centre. The surface is smooth, slightly slimy in wet weather, with thin greyish membranous veil remnants (not white and fluffy like the panther cap's). The margin is smooth, without grooves.

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 white and free (not attached to the stem) and moderately crowded. Spore print 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 7-12 cm tall and 1-1.5 cm thick, cylindrical, with a pronounced bulb at the base. It's whitish to light grey, with violet or lilac tints, especially lower down. Near the top there's a white membranous ring with a violet tint. At the base the volva forms a rim (not a sac as in the destroying angel, but a rim around the bulb).

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, with a violet or lilac tint in the lower stem. It does not change colour when cut (unlike the blusher, which turns strongly pink). The smell is faint; in some populations it has a note of old potato, radish or a damp cellar.

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; in some populations with a hint of old potato or radish. It tells you nothing about safety.

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.