How to tell Grey spotted amanita from Panther cap

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 cap is 5–12 cm across, spherical or bell-shaped when young, later flattened-convex. The surface is shiny, brown, grey-brown or olive-brown, dotted with small pure-white warts, usually spread fairly evenly; rain can wash them off.

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 gills are free, white and crowded. They don't change colour when damaged, which sets them apart from a similar edible species, the blusher, whose flesh and gills turn pink.

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 stem is 6–12 cm tall, white and smooth, with a thin membranous ring in the upper part. At the base is a bulb with veil remnants: not a free, sac-like volva but one or more white woolly rings, or a spiral, above a narrow gutter on the bulb. This rimmed bulb distinguishes it from the blusher.

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.

The flesh is firm and white and doesn't turn pink when damaged (a critical feature that distinguishes it from the similar blusher). There's no distinctive taste.

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.

The smell is faint, neutral or slightly unpleasant, subtly radish-like or earthy. It's neither sharp nor repulsive, so nothing warns you of the danger while foraging.