How to tell Ochre brittlegill from Jewelled amanita

Cap 4-10 cm across, convex with an inrolled margin when young, becoming flattened with a slightly depressed centre with age. The cap skin is matte, slightly slimy in wet weather, and peels back about 1/3 of the way to the centre. Colour: ochre-yellow, mustard-yellow, greyish-yellow, deeper toward yellow-brown at the centre, paler toward the margin. Mature caps fade to pale cream, and their margin develops fine radial grooves.

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.

Gills attached or free, moderately crowded, thin, brittle. Colour: whitish at first, cream to pale ochre with age. Spore print pale cream to pale ochre.

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.

Stem 4-7 cm tall, 1-2 cm thick, firm, cylindrical, hollow in old specimens. Colour: white to greyish-white, with faint greyish spots in old specimens. Surface smooth with lengthwise wrinkles. No ring.

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.

Flesh firm, brittle, white to cream. Does not change colour when cut, or slowly turns greyish. Smell faint, neutral, taste mild when young, often bitterish when mature.

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

Faint and neutral, with nothing distinctive.

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.