 The death cap was first described by French botanist Sébastien Vaillant in 1727 , who gave a succinct phrase name " Fungus phalloides , annulatus , sordide virescens , et patulus " , which is still recognizable as the fungus today . Though the scientific name phalloides means " phallus @-@ shaped " , it is unclear whether it is named for its resemblance to a literal phallus or the stinkhorn mushrooms Phallus . In 1821 , Elias Magnus Fries described it as Agaricus phalloides , but included all white amanitas within its description . Finally in 1833 , Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link settled on the name Amanita phalloides , after Persoon had named it Amanita viridis 30 years earlier . Although Louis Secretan 's use of the name Amanita phalloides predates Link 's , it has been rejected for nomenclatural purposes because Secretan 's works did not use binomial nomenclature consistently ; some taxonomists have , however , disagreed with this opinion . 
