Community find

Death Cap

Amanita phalloides

Group

gilled mushroom

Spore print

White

Size

Cap diameter: 5–15 cm; Stipe length: 8–15 cm, thickness 1–2 cm.

Season

Typically appears from late summer to late autumn, especially following periods of heavy rain.

Habitat

Found on the ground in association with broadleaf trees, especially oak and beech, though it can occur with some conifers. It prefers woodland edges and landscaped areas.

Distribution

Native to Europe, but widely introduced and established in North America, North Africa, and parts of the Southern Hemisphere including Australia and New Zealand.

Key characteristics

Convex to flat cap, often with a slight greenish or yellowish tint, becoming paler toward the edge. It features white gills that are free from the stem, a prominent ring (annulus), and a large sack-like base (volva).

Fruiting body

Cap is 5–15 cm wide, smooth, sticky when wet, metallic-olive to greenish-yellow. Hymenophore consists of crowded white gills. Stipe is 8–15 cm long, white to pale olive, often with a skirt-like ring and a bulbous base encased in a white membranous volva.

How to recognise it

Check for white gills, a ring on the stem, and the presence of a cup-like volva at the very base of the stem (often buried). The cap often has a characteristic feathery, radial fiber texture under a lens.

Look-alikes

Amanita bisporigera (Destroying Angel), Amanita citrina (False Death Cap), and some species of Agaricus (which lack a volva and have dark spores) or Volvariella (which lack a ring and have pink spores).

Ecological role

Mycorrhizal, forming a symbiotic relationship with the roots of certain trees to exchange nutrients and water.

Notes

This species was first described by French botanist Sébastien Vaillant in 1727. It is one of the most studied fungi in the world because of its potent biochemistries, including alpha-amanitin, which inhibits RNA polymerase II.