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.
Caps with radiating blades beneath
Girdled Webcap
Gilled
A slimy webcap named for the striking series of whitish glutinous girdles that band its stem like snakeskin. It grows with willow, poplar and birch on damp, often calcareous ground.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Goatcheese Webcap
Gilled
A lilac-blue webcap of mossy spruce forest with bluish young gills, whitish-lilac flesh and an unusually strong, far-carrying smell.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Golden Bootleg
Gilled
A large and striking golden-ochre mushroom of nutrient-rich waste ground, coated in a fine granular powder and carrying a big flaring ring on a sheathed, boot-like stem.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Golden Oyster Mushroom
Gilled
A vivid golden-yellow oyster mushroom that grows in dense bouquets from dead hardwood, its thin funnel-shaped caps fading to pale ochre as they age.
Spore print · White to pale lilac
Golden Scalycap
Gilled
A striking golden-orange Pholiota that fruits from wounds high on broadleaf trunks, with a glutinous cap bearing flattened darker scales and a rusty spore print.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Golden Trumpet
Gilled
A tiny tawny-orange mushroom with decurrent veined gills and a wiry dark stem, fruiting in dense swarms on mossy conifer logs and stumps.
Spore print · Pale buff to white
Golden-edge Bonnet
Gilled
A small conifer-litter bonnet whose dull olive-brown cap hides gills bordered with brilliant orange edges. The orange tone is repeated on the stipe and its basal hairs.
Spore print · White
Grass-green Russula
Gilled
An evenly grass-green brittlegill of birch woods, distinguished by its smooth unpatched cap, cream-ochre spore print and rusty spotting on ageing gills.
Spore print · Cream to pale ochre
Green Skinhead
Gilled
An unusual olive-green webcap with a dry, finely felted cap, green gills that rust with age and greenish-yellow flesh. Green is rare among gilled fungi, making it easy to spot.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Greenflush Fibrecap
Gilled
A sturdy pale ochre fibrecap with a distinctive blue-green flush over the cap centre and a sweet aromatic odour. Found on richer soils in broadleaf and mixed woodland.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Greenfoot Fibrecap
Gilled
A dark, densely shaggy fibrecap whose stipe base is stained a vivid blue-green. A distinctive species of damp mossy conifer woodland and boggy ground.
Spore print · Dull brown
Grey Shag
Gilled
A tall, fragile inkcap of manure and composted straw, its ovoid grey cap coated in loose woolly veil fibres before it splits, curls and melts away into black ink.
Spore print · Black
Grooved Bonnet
Gilled
A firm grey bonnet distinguished by its rigid, silvery-grey stipe marked with fine longitudinal grooves running its full length. It arises from buried hardwood roots and decaying stumps.
Spore print · White
Hare's Foot Inkcap
Gilled
A short-lived inkcap whose young cylindrical cap is wrapped in dense silvery-white wool like a hare's foot, then expands, splits, and curls back within hours. Common on woodchip and litter.
Spore print · Black
Hebeloma crustuliniforme
Gilled
A pale clay-coloured woodland mushroom with crowded brown-maturing gills whose edges bead with droplets in humid weather, and a strong radish-like odour.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Hebeloma mesophaeum
Gilled
A small two-toned Hebeloma with a dark brown cap centre, a paler margin hung with white veil fibrils, and a faint veil zone on the stipe. A pioneer of disturbed and planted ground.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Hebeloma radicosum
Gilled
A large ringed Hebeloma with a deeply rooting stipe that traces down to a buried mammal latrine, and a marzipan-like almond scent.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Hebeloma sacchariolens
Gilled
A pale, unassuming woodland Hebeloma recognised chiefly by its extremely strong sweet, scorched-sugar scent, clay-brown spore deposit and finely fringed gill edges.
Spore print · Clay-brown
Horsehair Parachute
Gilled
A pinhead-sized brown parachute perched on a stiff black hair, often accompanied by tangles of black horsehair-like cords running through the needle litter.
Spore print · White
Inky Mushroom
Gilled
A grey-scaled woodland Agaricus with a dark-centred cap, a chrome-yellow staining stipe base and a distinctly inky odour.
Spore print · Dark chocolate brown
Inocybe erubescens
Gilled
A stout, silky white fibrecap of chalky beech and lime woods that reddens conspicuously where handled or aged. Its spring fruiting and radially split cap are characteristic.
Spore print · Clay brown
King Oyster Mushroom
Gilled
The heaviest of the oyster mushrooms, with a small greyish-tan cap perched on a thick club-shaped white stem, growing from the dead root crowns of umbellifers in dry grassland.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Late Fall Oyster
Gilled
A cold-weather bracket with an olive to yellow-green tacky cap, crowded orange-yellow gills and a short stubby lateral stipe, fruiting on hardwood logs after most other mushrooms have finished.
Spore print · White to pale yellowish
Lepiota brunneoincarnata
Gilled
A small dapperling of grassy, disturbed ground whose pale cap is broken into concentric zones of pinkish to vinaceous-brown scales, with fibrous girdles on the lower stem and no true ring.
Spore print · White
Lepiota subincarnata
Gilled
A small pale dapperling with a flesh-pink to tan cap finely broken into concentric scales, girdled fibres on the lower stem and no true ring, common on mulched garden ground.
Spore print · White
Liberty Cap
Gilled
A small, slender grassland mushroom with a sharply conical cap ending in a distinct nipple, a separable gelatinous cap skin, a wavy thin stem and a dark purple-brown spore print.
Spore print · Dark purple-brown
Lilac Bonnet
Gilled
A litter-dwelling bonnet with a lilac, violet or pinkish cap, broad widely spaced gills and a strong radish smell. Colour varies widely, so the odour and gill structure matter more than the shade.
Spore print · White
Lilac Fibrecap
Gilled
A small silky fibrecap washed with lilac to violet tones and topped by a pointed umbo, its gills maturing to dull clay-brown. Frequently found alongside its plain white counterpart.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Lion Shield
Gilled
A slender golden-yellow shield mushroom with a velvety wrinkled cap centre, a finely lined margin and free gills that flush pink. It fruits on decaying deciduous wood.
Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink
Livid Pinkgill
Gilled
The largest European pinkgill, with a stout ivory-grey cap, gills that turn from yellowish to salmon-pink, and a strong farinaceous odour.
Spore print · Pink
Macro Mushroom
Gilled
One of the largest white meadow Agaricus species, with a thick cracking cap that can exceed 25 cm and an unusually massive, felty ring. A grassland decomposer of long-established, lightly managed pasture.
Spore print · Dark chocolate brown
Mauve Parachute
Gilled
A jewel-like tropical parachute with a deeply pleated purple-red cap, pale distant gills and a shining black hair of a stem, scattered on fallen twigs and leaves.
Spore print · White
Meadow Waxcap
Gilled
A robust apricot-buff waxcap with a dry, matt cap, thick pale decurrent gills running well down the stem, and a stout stipe tapering to the base.
Spore print · White
Midden Inkcap
Gilled
A miniature counterpart of the Shaggy Inkcap that lives on manure heaps, with a white scaly cylindrical cap, a slender ringed stem and the same rapid melt into black ink.
Spore print · Black
Mild Milkcap
Gilled
A small, abundant reddish-brown milkcap of beech litter with a dry unzoned cap, crowded pale gills and copious white latex that dries whey-like on the gills. It often fruits in large troops beneath mature beech.
Spore print · Cream to pale buff
Milk-white Brittlegill
Gilled
A large, chalk-white funnel-shaped brittlegill that pushes up through the soil, often emerging still crusted with earth and litter. Its decurrent, widely spaced gills are unusual for the genus.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Milking Bonnet
Gilled
A small grey-brown bonnet of woodland litter whose slender stem releases a white milky drop when snapped. Blackish and pure white colour forms occur alongside the typical grey.
Spore print · White
Milky Conecap
Gilled
An extremely fragile white to cream conical mushroom of lawns and short grass that appears overnight and collapses within hours, betrayed by its rusty cinnamon spore print.
Spore print · Rusty cinnamon-brown
Milky Mushroom
Gilled
A stout, entirely milk-white tropical mushroom with a thick fleshy cap, crowded white gills and a solid club-shaped stipe. It fruits from casing soil over composting straw in hot, humid conditions.
Spore print · White
Mousepee Pinkgill
Gilled
A small grassland pinkgill with an olive-brown cap and a startling blue-green stipe that bruises deeper green, plus a pungent mouse-like smell.
Spore print · Pink
Mower's Mushroom
Gilled
A very common small brown lawn mushroom whose hygrophanous cap dries in distinct pale bands, with mottled brown gills and dark purplish-brown spores.
Spore print · Dark purplish brown
Mycena chlorophos
Gilled
A minute, translucent grey bonnet of humid Asian and Pacific forests, famous for the pale green light its gills and cap emit after dark.
Spore print · White
Nameko
Gilled
A small amber-brown East Asian Pholiota famous for the thick clear gelatinous layer coating its cap, growing in clusters on dead hardwood and widely grown on inoculated logs.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Neonothopanus gardneri
Gilled
A large Brazilian bracket-like agaric that grows from the leaf bases of babassu palms and glows a vivid yellow-green after dark. Its off-centre stipe, funnel-shaped tan cap and strongly decurrent gills are diagnostic.
Spore print · White
Netted Fieldcap
Gilled
A delicate wood-inhabiting fieldcap with a slimy greyish-lilac cap embossed with a network of raised veins, and rusty-brown gills on a fragile white stipe.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Nitrous Waxcap
Gilled
A drab grey-brown waxcap identified less by colour than by its sharp nitrous, bleach-like smell and fibrous, matt cap.
Spore print · White
Northern Milkcap
Gilled
A large, greasy grey-violet milkcap of northern birch and spruce forests, with white latex that dries greyish or greenish on the pale gills. It is one of the most abundant Lactarius species in Fennoscandia and the boreal belt.
Spore print · Pale cream to pale yellow
Oakbug Milkcap
Gilled
An abundant oak-associated milkcap with a dull cinnamon-brown, faintly banded cap and a heavy oily odour. Its creamy white latex does not change colour but dries brownish on the gills.
Spore print · Pale cream with pinkish tint