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.
Branched or club-shaped fruit bodies
Cauliflower Mushroom
Corals & Clubs
A large cream-coloured rosette of flattened, crimped, ribbon-like lobes that grows at the base of conifers, resembling a cauliflower head or a bath sponge.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Crested Coral
Corals & Clubs
A small white coral fungus whose branch tips split into fine crests like miniature antlers. It grows from woodland soil and is often blackened at the base by a parasitic fungus.
Spore print · White
Crown-tipped Coral
Corals & Clubs
A wood-inhabiting coral whose every branch ends in a small crown or cup ringed with tiny points, growing in rows along rotting hardwood logs.
Spore print · White
False Coral
Corals & Clubs
A pale, tough, coral-like fungus whose flattened branches fuse sideways into fan-shaped or rosette-like masses on woodland soil. It looks like a coral fungus but belongs to the jelly fungus lineage.
Spore print · White
False Coral Fungus
Corals & Clubs
A tough, leathery, whitish fungus whose flattened branches fuse sideways into fans and mats, looking like a coral but built like a jelly fungus.
Spore print · White
Flat-topped Coral
Corals & Clubs
A stout orange-ochre club with a broad, flat, wrinkled top that looks as if it has been sliced off. A conifer-forest species of western and northern regions.
Spore print · White to pale yellow
Giant Club
Corals & Clubs
A conspicuous unbranched club up to 30 cm tall, shaped like a pestle with a broad wrinkled head, ochre-yellow to tan and bruising purple-brown where handled.
Spore print · White to pale ochre
Golden Coral
Corals & Clubs
A large, richly golden branched coral rising from a short whitish trunk, fruiting from soil in broadleaf woodland. Branch and tip colour is nearly uniform, without pink or salmon tones.
Spore print · Pale ochre-yellow
Golden Spindles
Corals & Clubs
Vivid egg-yellow spindles that fuse at the base into tight bundles, each club tapering to a fine point that browns with age. A signature fungus of old, unfertilised turf.
Spore print · White
Grey Coral
Corals & Clubs
A small, ash-grey to lilac-grey branched coral of woodland soil, with rather thick, blunt-tipped branches and a white spore print.
Spore print · White
Meadow Coral
Corals & Clubs
A yellow to apricot grassland coral whose slender branches fork repeatedly into blunt antler tips above a distinctly white, downy base. Common in mossy, unimproved turf.
Spore print · White
Pink-tipped Coral
Corals & Clubs
A stout, cauliflower-shaped coral fungus with a thick white trunk and crowded branches whose tips are washed pink to wine-red. It grows from soil in broadleaf woodland and is one of the bulkiest of the branched fungi.
Spore print · Pale ochre-yellow
Red Coral
Corals & Clubs
A brilliantly red to scarlet branched coral of Pacific conifer forests, growing from deep needle duff. Some forms carry contrasting yellow branch tips.
Spore print · Pale yellow
Rose Spindles
Corals & Clubs
A scarce, delicate club fungus forming slender rose-pink unbranched spindles among moss and short turf. Its clear pink colour is unique among temperate grassland clubs.
Spore print · White
Smoky Spindles
Corals & Clubs
A grassland club fungus forming dense tufts of slim, unbranched, smoke-grey to pale pinkish-grey spindles that are hollow and very brittle. It is one of the classic indicator fungi of ancient, low-fertility turf.
Spore print · White
Stinking Earthfan
Corals & Clubs
An upright, tough, coral-like fungus with purple- to blackish-brown branches ending in flattened, whitish, fan-shaped tips, growing from soil in conifer woodland. Its strong, penetrating odour usually announces it before it is seen.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Strap Coral
Corals & Clubs
Small, tongue- or strap-shaped clubs of pale buff to pinkish-ochre, often fruiting in scattered troops through deep conifer needle litter.
Spore print · White to pale pinkish-buff
Upright Coral
Corals & Clubs
A tan to ochre coral fungus whose narrow branches rise almost perfectly parallel and vertical from a wood-anchored base. White cords at the base and a brownish bruising reaction are typical.
Spore print · Pale yellow to ochre
Violet Coral
Corals & Clubs
An unmistakable amethyst to magenta-violet coral fungus forming small tufts of blunt-tipped branches in old grassland and mossy woodland. Its intense colour is unmatched among temperate corals.
Spore print · White
White Coral
Corals & Clubs
A delicate, chalk-white coral that branches repeatedly into fine upright arms with blunt tips. Grows from soil and litter in woodland and mossy clearings.
Spore print · White
White Spindles
Corals & Clubs
Clusters of slender, brittle, pure white unbranched clubs that grow in tight tufts among moss and short grass. They snap at the slightest pressure, giving the species its name.
Spore print · White
Wrinkled Club
Corals & Clubs
A white club fungus with thick, irregularly wrinkled and grooved stems that are unbranched or only sparsely forked. It grows from soil in woodland, often along shaded path edges.
Spore print · White
Yellow Coral
Corals & Clubs
A bulky coral fungus with a stout white trunk and crowded lemon to sulphur-yellow branches. The white flesh characteristically stains reddish then brown where bruised.
Spore print · Pale yellow-ochre
Yellow-tipped Coral
Corals & Clubs
A large branched coral fungus with salmon to apricot-pink branches tipped in clear yellow, growing from woodland soil. Its flesh typically discolours brownish where bruised or cut.
Spore print · Pale yellow-ochre