This fungus was described in 1805 under the current name, Amanita porphyria, by Johannes Baptista von Albertini and Lewis David de Schweinitz in their work Conspectus Fungorum in Lusatiae superioris agro Niskiensi crescentium e methodo Persooniana ("An overview of fungi growing in the area of Niesky in Upper Lusatia, according to the methodology of Persoon").[2] The name was then sanctioned by Fries, meaning that the name Amanita porphyria is given priority even if the normal nomenclatural rules would give precedence to another name – and indeed the Danish mycologist Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher had already described the same species as Agaricus gracilis in 1803."[3][2] The epithet porphyria comes from the Ancient Greek word porphúra (πορφύρα), meaning the Tyrian purple dye.[7] It can also be confused with the panther cap (A. pantherina) A. porphyria usually grows on poor soil under coniferous trees, especially spruce,[10] but also fir,[8] hemlock,[9] and some deciduous ones such as birch.There was some uncertainty whether North American specimens should really be classified under a different name,[9] but there is now firm DNA evidence that all the variants actually belong to the same species.