Amanita porphyria, also known as Grey veiled amanita, is a medium to large, fleshy agaric that has a greyish brown cap, sometimes with grey patches, white gills, ring and a broad, abrupt bulb at the base. The mushroom grows scattered on the ground under conifers and less commonly in mixed conifer-hardwood forests.

Cap hemispherical when young, then convex and finally flattening, greyish brown to brown in colour, darker in the centre and often appearing to be radially lined with purplish-brown fibres. Usually smooth, sometimes with grey patches. The flesh is white with a smell of radish. Gills soft, crowded, white and free from the stem. Stem tapers towards the apex and is whitish, with fine striations above the ring. As the fruit body matures, violaceous grey-brown longitudinal fibres become increasingly evident below the ring. A superior persistent white ring is present, but it soon collapses against the surface of the stem. The volva is made up of short, irregular whitish plaques on the bulbous stem base. Spore print white.

Microscopic Features: The spores are globose or sub-globose in shape, occasionally broadly ellipsoidal. They measure 7.2-9 µm in length and 7.8-11 µm in width. They are amyloid.

Amanita porphyria on the First Nature Web site.
Amanita porphyria on the MushroomExpert.Com Web site.