Panthercap mushroom Amanita pantherina

Scientific Name: Amanita pantherina (Amanitaceae). Pantherina is a reference to a supposed resemblance to the pelt of a panther.

English Name: Panthercap mushroom (Amanita family).

French Name: Amanite panthère (='panther amanita').

5 Key Characters:

• brown cap 5 - 12 cm across, with white spots. 
• cap colour very variable and can be pale or very dark.
• found in groups in mixed forest.
• white gills.
• pure white stem 6 - 12 cm tall.

Lookalikes: Grey-spotted Amanita A. excelsa, which is very like, but has grey spots on the cap, not white and generally a thicker stem. Blusher A. rubescens, which always 'blushes' when damaged.

Habitat: Mixed deciduous forest, especially with Oak Quercus spp and Beech Fagus sylvatica.


Fruiting Period: August-September-October-November-December-January-February.


Status: Quite common.


Edible or Toxic? Deadly poisonous, and contains phsyco-active toxins similar to Fly Agaric A. muscaria.  

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Blushers and Panthercaps displayed together after a fungi foray, to show how similar the two species are. The mushrooms are roughly divided into Blushers on the left, Panthercaps on the right. The point of the exercise is that Blushers are edible if correctly prepared, Panthercaps are one of the most dangerously toxic mushrooms in the forest.