European blusher

What it is

The blusher, Amanita rubescens, is a woodland mushroom with a brown to pinkish-brown cap dotted with small warts, white crowded gills and a skirt-like ring on the stem. Its name comes from the flesh, which turns pink to dull red where it is cut, bruised or chewed by a grub. The Latin epithet rubescens means reddening. Christiaan Hendrik Persoon described the species in 1797.

It belongs to Amanita, the genus that also holds the death cap, the fly agaric and the panthercap, and that is the reason this page spends more time on telling it apart than on cooking it. The blusher is eaten in parts of Europe, but only cooked, and only by people who can separate it from its poisonous relatives every time.

The cap is 5 to 15 cm across, convex when mature, reddish-brown in the usual form and covered with small white to greyish or pinkish-brown veil warts. Cap colour varies a lot, from pale greyish-white through pink to reddish brown, and rain can wash the warts away, so colour is no guide. The gills are white and free of the stem, and they show red spots where damaged. The stem is 5 to 15 cm long, white above the ring and flushed reddish-brown or pink-flecked below it, with an indistinct to bulbous base. Raw flesh tastes mild with a faint acrid aftertaste, and the smell is not distinctive. The spore print is white.

Names and relatives

In English it is the blusher or the blushing amanita. German calls it Perlpilz (pearl mushroom) or Rotender Wulstling, and Czech knows it as muchomurka ruzovka or masak. Blusher is also a common name for a group of related species. Amanita novinupta, the new bride blushing amanita, occupies western North America and has its own page here as the American blusher. North American blushers east of the Rocky Mountains go under the provisional name Amanita amerirubescens, and may be several unnamed species. The catalogue does not treat these as interchangeable with the European species.

Named variants of the European blusher include Amanita rubescens var. alba, with a whitish cap, and a variety with a yellow ring described in Czech sources. Amanita flavorubescens, a related North American species, has a brighter yellow cap with warts that stay yellow. The grey-spotted amanita, Amanita excelsa, is also sold as the false blusher or false panthercap in some accounts. It looks very like the blusher but its flesh does not change colour and its cap scales are grey.

Where and when it grows

Amanita rubescens is common across much of Europe and Asia and has been recorded in Russia, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States. In South Africa it is thought to have arrived with imported trees. In Britain it is widespread and common. In Germany it is described as very common, and in the Czech lands as fairly common.

It is mycorrhizal, which means it lives in partnership with tree roots and cannot be grown without them. It associates with both hardwoods and conifers, notably spruce and beech in Germany, and is especially abundant in conifer woods on poor, acidic soils, often in small groups. The main season in Britain and Ireland runs from June to October, and sometimes into December in a mild spell. German and Czech accounts give June to October or November. In eastern North America the blusher group is often parasitised by the mould Hypomyces hyalinus, which distorts the fruiting bodies and makes them hard to recognise.

Telling it from the panthercap

The panthercap, Amanita pantherina, is the look-alike that matters most, and several accounts say the two can grow side by side. It is also called the false blusher. Brown caps are common to both, so the checks below have to be made on every single mushroom, and none of them works alone.

Flesh. Cut or break a blusher and the white flesh turns slowly pink to pinkish red, most noticeably around grub holes. The gills spot red where damaged and the stem base flushes pink. The panthercap's flesh is white and does not change colour when injured. The change is gradual, and the sources treat it as the main field mark that should support, not replace, the other checks.

Ring. On a blusher the hanging ring is thin, fragile and grooved on its upper surface, often ragged or notched at the edge. The Czech account explains the grooves as the imprint of the gills on the young ring, which is pressed against them. The panthercap's ring is smooth and solid, and German accounts add that it sits lower on the stem. English Wikipedia, a British forager's guide and the Czech account all give the ring as a separating feature, but the First Nature and Wikipedia pages on the panthercap do not describe its ring either way, so treat it as one clue among several.

Cap. The panthercap's cap is chocolate to hazel brown, sometimes pale ochre or very dark brown, with crisp pure white or cream warts that rub off easily. Its margin is very finely striate, grooved in short lines. That is the opposite of the ring: the panthercap has a grooved cap edge and a smooth ring, and the blusher has a smooth cap edge and a grooved ring. Blusher cap margins are usually not lined, though one description calls them slightly striate, so the margin is only a supporting clue.

Stem base. The panthercap's slightly swollen base carries white volva remains. Wikipedia describes them as one or two hoop-like rings above a bulb that turns grey with age, and First Nature as woolly rings or a helix above a narrow gutter. British and German accounts liken the edge to the rim of an acorn cup. A North American description of the blusher says its base has no prominent sack-like volva, and the Czech account says it has no volva at all. Dig the whole mushroom out of the ground so the base is intact.

Smell. The panthercap is described as unpleasant or like raw potatoes, or like radish when bruised. The blusher has no distinctive smell. Smell can support a decision but cannot make it.

Comparison at a glance

Flesh when cut: blusher turns pink to red slowly; panthercap stays white. Ring: blusher grooved on the upper surface, fragile, often ragged; panthercap smooth and solid. Cap margin: blusher usually smooth; panthercap finely striate. Cap warts: blusher grey, pinkish or brownish, felty and soft; panthercap crisp white, easily removed. Stem base: blusher indistinct to bulbous, flushed pink, no distinct volva rim; panthercap bulbous with a rim-like band of white volva remains above it. Smell: blusher not distinctive; panthercap unpleasant, like raw potato or radish.

The panthercap and the deadly relatives

The panthercap is poisonous. Its main toxins are ibotenic acid and muscimol, with muscazone and muscarine also reported. Wikipedia lists nausea, vomiting and unconsciousness beginning 1 to 3 hours after eating, and notes that untreated poisoning could be fatal. Potency varies with season, age and habitat. First Nature says it must be treated as a poisonous mushroom. Because ibotenic acid and muscimol dissolve in water, one forager warns that boiling it is not a process to attempt carelessly. This page does not describe such a process.

The death cap, Amanita phalloides, belongs to the same genus. It has white free gills, a skirt-like ring on a stem with greyish-olive scales and a swollen, sac-like white volva that may stay hidden in leaf litter, which is why the whole base has to be dug up. It carries amatoxins, which damage the liver and kidneys. Cooking, freezing and drying do not reduce its toxicity. Symptoms usually start 6 to 12 hours after the meal, are often followed by a false recovery, and can progress to liver and kidney failure. Wikipedia gives it a large majority of mushroom-poisoning deaths. The destroying angel is another dangerous relative that boiling does not make safe. This record does not cover the false death cap (Amanita citrina) because the sources read for it say nothing about it.

The practical lesson from these accounts is the same: the base of an Amanita has to be dug out whole and examined, because the volva that identifies a dangerous species can sit below the soil or leaf litter.

Why it must be cooked

Raw blusher flesh contains a haemolytic protein, a substance that breaks down red blood cells. Cooking destroys it. Wikipedia reports that David Pegler classes the blusher among haemolytic poisonous mushrooms, and that eating large quantities raw can cause anaemia if untreated. German sources also name heat-sensitive gastrointestinal toxins. First Nature says blushers must be thoroughly cooked, otherwise they can cause serious illness. Wikipedia describes it as edible if cooked and poisonous raw, and its summary box rates it edible but not recommended.

Preparation advice differs between sources. The method one British forager gives is to chop the mushroom, boil it in salted water for up to 5 minutes, throw the water away, rinse it and then cook as with any other mushroom, and readers of that page report shorter and longer boiling times. This record cannot confirm a safe time, so it does not offer one. The same forager thinks drying and powdering is probably wise only if the powder is cooked later. German sources advise removing the cap skin and the ring. Larvae infest the blusher heavily, and old fruiting bodies can smell unpleasant, so many finds are unusable.

Eating it in Europe

Opinions about the blusher's value differ. Czech sources treat it as one of the better edible mushrooms: it is sliced thinly and dried, or fried in butter or lard with caraway and salt, when it is said to taste like fried meat. German sources record that opinions range from moderate to a prized mild taste. A British forager rates its edibility moderate and the mushroom unsuitable for beginners, and First Nature does not recommend it for its menus. A reader on that British page describes a meaty texture for a breakfast mushroom after boiling, rinsing, drying and browning in butter.

These are descriptions of how some people cook it, not an endorsement. None of the sources examined here describes a long traditional food culture of the blusher in a particular country, a market record, or a historical record of when it was first eaten, so this page makes no such claim.

Identification must be certain

Every source that gives a way of telling blusher from panthercap also says it is not enough. One British guide puts it plainly: the features it lists do not suffice, and the flesh test should support the identification rather than replace it. Amanita includes the death cap, which accounts for most deaths from mushroom poisoning worldwide, and some authorities advise against collecting Amanita for eating at all.

Pink bruising, smell, taste or colour never establishes that a mushroom is safe. A beginner should have a specimen checked in person by an experienced local mycologist, such as through a national mycological society, before eating any Amanita. This page describes features that are described for the species and is not a field guide. It does not establish that any particular mushroom is safe to eat.