Fungi encyclopedia
A reference for the fungi you actually find
Each entry describes one species the way you meet it in the field — the cap and its surface, what sits underneath, the stipe and its base, the spore print colour, the substrate it fruits from, and the species most often confused with it.
Fleshy caps with a sponge of pores
Admirable Bolete
Boletes
A rich maroon-brown bolete of Pacific Northwest hemlock forest that fruits on and around well-rotted conifer logs, with bright yellow pores and a stout reddish-brown stipe.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Alder Bolete
Boletes
A soft, pale bolete restricted to damp alder carr, with shallow decurrent yellow pores that instantly bruise blue-black. Fruitbodies are often lopsided and clustered.
Spore print · Olive to yellowish-brown
Ash-tree Bolete
Boletes
An unusual bolete found only near ash trees, with an off-centre stipe and a shallow, vein-like yellow pore surface that radiates outward like gill folds.
Spore print · Olive-brown to yellow-brown
Aspen Scaber Stalk
Boletes
A North American scaber stalk of aspen groves, with an orange-brown cap, dark scabers even when young, and pale flesh that greys and takes on lilac tones when cut.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Bay Bolete
Boletes
A rich bay-brown bolete whose lemon-yellow pores flush blue-green within seconds of being touched. The stipe is brown-streaked and lacks the raised netting of the King Bolete.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Birch Bolete
Boletes
A tall, slender bolete with a dull brown cap, off-white pores and a long white stipe roughened by vertical rows of small dark scabers. It grows only with birch.
Spore print · Snuff-brown to ochre-brown
Bitter Bolete
Boletes
A robust brown-capped bolete with white pores that flush pink with age and a pale stipe carrying a bold dark brown network. Widespread in conifer and mixed woodland.
Spore print · Pinkish-brown
Black Velvet Bolete
Boletes
A dramatic bolete with a velvety black cap and stipe over a white pore surface. Cut flesh flushes pink then slowly turns grey to black.
Spore print · Pinkish-brown
Bluing Bolete
Boletes
A pale, shaggy-capped bolete of sandy heathland whose every surface flushes an intense cornflower blue within seconds of being touched or cut.
Spore print · Pale straw yellow
Bovine Bolete
Boletes
A slender pinkish-tan pine bolete recognised by its wide, irregular compound pores that run down the stalk. It is frequently found in company with the pink Rosy Spike.
Spore print · Olive to clay-brown
Bronze Bolete
Boletes
The darkest member of the porcini group, with a sooty bronze to almost black velvety cap over a brown stipe finely netted in pale lines. Flesh white and unchanging.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Brown Birch Bolete
Boletes
The commonest of the scaber stalks, a tall grey-brown bolete of birch woodland with a slender stem roughened by dark scaly tufts.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Butter Bolete
Boletes
A solid golden-pored bolete of warm broadleaf woods, with a dry tan-brown cap, a yellow finely netted stipe and a tapering rooting base. Flesh pale yellow, blueing slowly and weakly.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Chestnut Bolete
Boletes
A neat, rusty chestnut bolete with white to pale yellow pores, brittle flesh and a hollow, chambered stipe, and a pale straw spore print unusual for the group.
Spore print · Pale straw yellow
Chicken Fat Mushroom
Boletes
A slender bright yellow bolete with a slimy, red-streaked cap and cottony veil fragments on the margin. It grows only with eastern white pine, often in large troops.
Spore print · Cinnamon-brown
Chrome-footed Bolete
Boletes
A striking pink-capped bolete whose white stipe is dotted with pink scabers above and washed brilliant chrome-yellow at the base. The pore surface is white, ageing pink.
Spore print · Pinkish-brown
Devil's Bolete
Boletes
A massive, pale-capped bolete of warm limestone woodland, with blood-red pores, a squat bulbous stipe covered in a fine red net, and flesh that blues only slowly.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Foxy Bolete
Boletes
A firm-fleshed conifer scaber stalk with a deep fox-red cap, blackish scabers on a stout white stem, and flesh that greys strongly with blue-green tints at the base.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Frost's Bolete
Boletes
A vivid lacquered blood-red bolete with dark red pores that weep amber droplets when young, and a deeply pitted, coarsely netted red stipe. Bruises blue instantly.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Gilled Bolete
Boletes
A bolete that wears gills instead of pores: thick, widely spaced, bright golden-yellow blades running down the stipe beneath a dry velvety brown cap.
Spore print · Olive-yellow to yellowish-brown
Graceful Bolete
Boletes
A slim, long-stemmed bolete with a velvety chestnut cap, white pores that age flesh-pink, and an unusual pinkish-brown spore print.
Spore print · Pinkish to reddish-brown
Gray Bolete
Boletes
A grey-capped hardwood bolete with a whitish stipe wrapped in a bold dark net and a yellow patch at the very base. Pale pores stain brownish where handled.
Spore print · Olive-brown to brown
Hazel Bolete
Boletes
A scaber stalk of hazel and hornbeam with a distinctly wrinkled, pitted olive-brown cap and white flesh that darkens through pink to near black when cut.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Hollow-stemmed Larch Bolete
Boletes
A dry, shaggy brown larch bolete with large radiating yellow pores and a uniquely hollow, chambered stalk. Cutting the stem lengthways confirms it instantly.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Iodine Bolete
Boletes
A pale, dry-capped bolete of warm oak woodland with lemon-yellow pores that do not blue and a stipe base whose flesh carries a distinctive iodoform-like odour.
Spore print · Olive-brown
King Bolete
Boletes
A heavy, bun-shaped brown bolete with a stout swollen white stipe carrying fine pale netting, and a sponge layer that ages from white through cream to olive-yellow without bruising blue.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Lake's Bolete
Boletes
A scaly reddish-brown bolete of Douglas-fir woods with large radial yellow pores and a ring zone. Flesh at the very stalk base often flushes blue-green.
Spore print · Olive-brown to cinnamon
Lurid Bolete
Boletes
A red-pored bolete of limy soils recognised by the coarse red network covering its stipe and by the thin orange-red line revealed just above the tubes when the fruit body is cut lengthways.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Old Man of the Woods
Boletes
An unmistakable bolete covered in coarse, shaggy, blackish-grey pyramidal scales, with a woolly stipe and white flesh that turns red and then black when cut. Its spore print is nearly black.
Spore print · Blackish-brown to black
Orange Birch Bolete
Boletes
A tall, striking bolete with a bright orange felty cap, a white stipe studded with blackish scabers, and white flesh that turns pinkish-grey and then near-black when cut. It grows only with birch.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Peppery Bolete
Boletes
A small, slender bolete with wide coppery-rust pores running slightly down the stipe and a vivid chrome-yellow base, often found close to Fly Agarics on acid heathy ground.
Spore print · Cinnamon to rusty brown
Pine Bolete
Boletes
A dark red-brown member of the porcini group tied to pine and spruce, with a bumpy matte cap and a stout stipe bearing a reddish-tinged net over a brown ground.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Porcini
Boletes
The archetypal stout bolete, with a smooth brown bun-shaped cap, white pores ageing yellow-olive, and a swollen pale stipe netted with fine white reticulation. Flesh stays white and unchanging when cut.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Ravenel's Bolete
Boletes
An unmistakable bolete wrapped in a bright sulphur-yellow powdery veil that tears to reveal a sticky reddish cap and leaves a cottony yellow ring on the stipe.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Red-mouth Bolete
Boletes
An eastern North American red-pored bolete with a velvety brown cap, dark red pores that flash blue at a touch, and coarse dark red hairs clothing the stipe base.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Royal Bolete
Boletes
A striking butter bolete with a rose-pink to purple-red velvety cap over bright yellow pores and a yellow, finely netted stipe. Flesh yellow with little or no blueing.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Russell's Bolete
Boletes
A tall, elegant bolete of eastern oak woods, instantly known by its extraordinarily long stipe carved with deep, ragged, shaggy ridges and by its cracked olive-brown cap.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Scarletina Bolete
Boletes
A stout, dark-capped bolete with blood-red pores and a yellow stipe peppered with fine red dots, whose lemon flesh turns instantly inky blue when cut.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Slippery Jack
Boletes
A slimy chestnut-brown bolete with small pale yellow pores and, uniquely among common Suillus species, a large membranous ring on the stipe that leaves a purple-brown band below it.
Spore print · Clay-brown to ochre
Spring King Bolete
Boletes
A western North American porcini relative that fruits in clustered groups near melting snow in mountain conifer forest, often half-buried with a soil-crusted reddish-brown cap.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Summer Bolete
Boletes
An early-season relative of the porcini with a dry, velvety, often crazed brown cap and a pale net covering the whole length of the stipe. Flesh is white and unchanging.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Two-colored Bolete
Boletes
A handsome eastern North American oak bolete with a rose-red dry cap, bright yellow pores that bruise slowly blue, and a red stipe with a yellow apex and no net.
Spore print · Olive-brown
White King Bolete
Boletes
A pale, almost white-capped king bolete of the American Southwest, growing with ponderosa pine and oak. Whitish stipe with a fine white net and unchanging white flesh.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Larch Bolete
Boletes
A glossy golden-brown bolete found only under larch, with a slimy cap, yellow pores that bruise brownish, and a ring on the stem.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Lilac-brown Bolete
Boletes
A dark, softly purple-brown bolete whose pore surface is purple-grey from the start and whose stipe is densely peppered with fine dark purplish dots.
Spore print · Reddish-brown to pinkish-brown
Manzanita Bolete
Boletes
A large western North American scaber stalk with a deep red-brown, often sticky cap, coarse black scabers on a white stem, and flesh that greys and blackens when cut.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Mottled Bolete
Boletes
A birch scaber stalk recognised by its patchily mottled grey-brown cap and by flesh that flushes pink in the stem and stains vivid blue-green at the base.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Ornate-stalked Bolete
Boletes
A firm woodland bolete recognised by its brilliant chrome-yellow stipe covered in a raised network of ridges. Grey to olive caps sit above yellow pores that darken when handled.
Spore print · Olive-brown