BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The following is based on the descriptions by Albertini and Schweinitz (1805) and Neville and Poumarat (2004).

The cap of Amanita porphyria is (25-) 40 - 80 mm wide, dull red to grayish dull red to graying purple or pale brown gray to violaceous brown to violaceous gray brown, darkest in the center, hemispherical then convex, with or without a broad umbo, finally planar, viscid, shiny, with the distinct appearence of having innate radial fibers, and with a nonstriate and nonappendiculate margin.  The volva is present as rather large violaceous gray- brown to violaceous gray plaques.  The flesh is whitish or pale cream, except fora narrow violaceous gray-brown region just under the cap skin.

>The gills are free, rather crowded, whitish to pale yellowish gray, 4.5 - 8 mm broad, with a finely flocculose edge. The short gills are attenuate.

The stem is 60 - 110 × 6 - 14 mm, cylindric or slightly narrowing upwards, white or whitish, with fine striations above the ring, with violaceous gray or violaceous brownish longitudinal fibers present below the ring, solid and firm at first, giving the impression of the center being stuffed with cotton after some matureing, slowly becoming hollow.  The bulb is subglobose, marginate, and 12 - 36 mm wide.  The ring is membranous, thin, skirt-like, finally collapsing on the stem, whitish or pale gray at first, rapidly becoming violaceous gray overall and violaceous brownish near the edge.  The volva is present as a more or less irregular plaques on the lower stem or bulb, friable, at first whitish or pale gray, rapidly becoming brownish lilac-gray particularly in detached fragments, with a short cottony white free limb on the bulb's upper margin; the limb may be 1 - 6 mm high (rarely higher).  The flesh is whitish or pale cream.

The odor is like radishes.

According to Neville and Poumarat (2004), the spores measure 7.5 - 9.5 × 7 - 9 µm and are globose to subglobose and amyloid.  Clamps are absent at bases of basidia.  Spores measured by RET from European and U.S. collections are as follows: (7.5-) 8.0 - 9.8 (-11.2) x (7.0-) 7.5 - 9.2 (-11.0) µm and are globose to subglobose, infrequently broadly ellipsoid.

This species was originally described from eastern Germany (between the Oder and Elbe rivers) and is associated with fir (Abies alba), spruce (Picea abies), pines (Pinus sylvestris), and occasionally with broad-leaved trees such as beeches (Fagus sylvatica), birches (Betula pubescens), aspen (Populus tremula), etc.

The most similar European taxa are A. bulbosa (Schaeff.) Lam. and A bulbosa var. citrina (Schaeff.) Gillet.  The present species is widely reported in northern North America.  In North America, it is similar to one or more taxa called A. citrina by American mycologists.  Some of these taxa with pale straw-colored caps have a ring that becomes gray with age.  The range of cap color for the species in North America is as broad as has been reported from Europe. In the northwest, specimens are sometimes completely white except for their gray ring.  In eastern North America, the cap colors seen in the above illustrations are sometimes observed, however, in Newfoundland (photo) the caps are much paler and lack the red tint almost entirely.  Occasionally, specimens are found which are strongly virgate with pigments ranging from grayish yellow to brown, sometimes having an apparent olivaceous tint.  Whether some or all of the taxa referred to in North America as A. porphyria are indeed the same species as reported in Europe is an open question. -- R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel