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.
Rusts, moulds and unusual forms
Anther Smut
Other Fungi
A smut of the pink family that replaces a flower's pollen with a dusty violet-brown spore mass, turning campion anthers into spore dispensers carried by pollinating insects.
Spore print · Not applicable (violet-brown spore mass)
Azalea Leaf Gall
Other Fungi
A basidiomycete that converts azalea leaves and buds into thick, fleshy, pale green to pink bladder-like galls. Mature galls develop a chalky white bloom of basidiospores before browning and hardening.
Spore print · White (surface bloom)
Black Knot
Other Fungi
A twig-inhabiting ascomycete of Prunus trees that turns branches into hard, coal-black, corky swellings several centimetres long. The knots are perennial and enlarge each year along the stem.
Spore print · Not applicable
Black Trumpet
Other Fungi
A thin, hollow, vase-shaped fungus in dark grey to almost black, with a smooth or faintly wrinkled outer fertile surface and no true gills. It grows in dense troops in deep leaf litter, where its colouring makes it remarkably hard to see.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Bolete Eater
Other Fungi
A parasitic fungus that engulfs boletes in a felty white coat which ripens to bright golden yellow, distorting the host until its pores and stipe are barely recognisable.
Spore print · Not applicable; golden-yellow powdery spore mass
British Soldiers Lichen
Other Fungi
A small Cladonia whose grey-green stalks are capped with vivid scarlet fruiting knobs, growing in colonies on rotting stumps, fence rails and acid soil.
Spore print · Not applicable
Candleflame Lichen
Other Fungi
A miniature foliose lichen forming bright egg-yellow patches of tiny fringed lobes on the bark of roadside and parkland trees.
Spore print · Not applicable
Candlesnuff Fungus
Other Fungi
A small upright wood-rotting fungus whose black, flattened clubs are dusted white at the tips, giving the look of a freshly snuffed candle wick. It is one of the most common and longest-lasting fungi on old hardwood stumps.
Spore print · Black
Cannonball Fungus
Other Fungi
A pinhead-sized fungus that splits into a pale star and flings a single dark spore ball several metres, leaving hard black specks on nearby surfaces.
Spore print · Not applicable; spores held inside a dark peridiole
Caterpillar Fungus
Other Fungi
A parasitic fungus of ghost moth larvae that fills the caterpillar's body and pushes a single narrow dark brown club above the turf. The rigid larva remains attached below ground like a root.
Spore print · Not applicable — spores shed from perithecia
Chestnut Blight
Other Fungi
A bark-inhabiting sac fungus that forms sunken orange-brown cankers studded with pinhead-sized orange fruiting bodies. Fans of buff mycelium spread beneath the cracked bark of the affected stem.
Spore print · Not applicable
Common Bunt
Other Fungi
A smut fungus that hollows out wheat kernels and refills them with a mass of dark brown spores, producing fragile grey bunt balls with a distinctive fishy odour.
Spore print · Not applicable (dark brown spore mass)
Common Greenshield Lichen
Other Fungi
A broad, flat, apple-green rosette pressed to tree bark, with smooth rounded lobes at the edge and a wrinkled, powder-flecked centre.
Spore print · Not applicable
Common Orange Lichen
Other Fungi
A flat, leafy orange to yellow lichen forming rosettes on twigs, walls and coastal rock, with rounded lobes and crowded orange disc-shaped fruiting cups.
Spore print · Not applicable
Common Powderhorn Lichen
Other Fungi
A Cladonia of tree bases and rotting stumps whose slender grey-green podetia taper to blunt points and are coated in fine flour-like soredia, rarely forming cups.
Spore print · Not applicable
Common Toadskin Lichen
Other Fungi
A small umbilicate rock lichen whose surface is raised into rounded blisters, giving it the warty look of toad skin, with matching pits on the underside.
Spore print · Not applicable
Corn Smut
Other Fungi
A smut fungus that turns maize kernels, tassels and leaves into swollen silvery-grey galls which rupture to release masses of sooty black spores. It occurs wherever maize is grown.
Spore print · Not applicable
Dead Man's Fingers
Other Fungi
Swollen black clubs standing upright from decaying hardwood stumps like blackened fingers, tough and carbon-crusted outside with startling white flesh inside. It is a wood-rotting flask fungus present year-round.
Spore print · Black
Devil's Matchstick Lichen
Other Fungi
Slender grey stalks rising from a granular crust on shaded rock, each topped by a glossy black spherical head like a burnt match.
Spore print · Not applicable
Dog Lichen
Other Fungi
A large foliose lichen with broad grey-brown lobes, a downy upper surface, and a white veined underside bearing long shaggy rhizines.
Spore print · Not applicable
Elegant Sunburst Lichen
Other Fungi
A tightly appressed, brilliant orange rock lichen forming neat rosettes of narrow radiating lobes, common on bird-perch boulders in alpine and arctic country.
Spore print · Not applicable
Ergot
Other Fungi
A grass fungus that replaces a floret with a hard, curved purple-black horn projecting from the ear, which the following spring sprouts tiny pink drumstick-shaped fruiting heads.
Spore print · Not applicable (sclerotium, not a spore print)
Freckle Pelt Lichen
Other Fungi
A broad-lobed pelt lichen that turns vivid green when wet and is speckled with dark brown, wart-like cephalodia scattered across its surface.
Spore print · Not applicable
Golden-Eye Lichen
Other Fungi
A small, shrubby orange lichen on twigs, distinguished by bright orange apothecia rimmed with hair-like cilia that give it an eyelashed, eye-like look.
Spore print · Not applicable
Hairy Earthtongue
Other Fungi
A small black club or tongue standing upright in mossy turf, its whole surface matt and velvety from projecting bristles. It is a classic indicator of old unimproved waxcap grassland.
Spore print · Brown-black
Hammered Shield Lichen
Other Fungi
A grey foliose lichen whose lobes are embossed with a network of white ridges and shallow pits, looking like hammered metal, with soredia along the ridge lines.
Spore print · Not applicable
Hollyhock Rust
Other Fungi
A short-cycle rust of the mallow family that studs hollyhock leaf undersides with orange-brown wart-like pustules, each matched by a yellow spot above.
Spore print · Not applicable (brown spore masses)
Hooded Tube Lichen
Other Fungi
A pale grey foliose lichen with puffed, hollow, tube-like lobes whose tips turn up and split open to release powdery soredia from the underside.
Spore print · Not applicable
Iceland Moss
Other Fungi
An erect, tufted lichen of arctic and mountain heaths with curled chestnut-brown straps whose margins are fringed with tiny stiff spines.
Spore print · Not applicable
Juniper-Hawthorn Rust
Other Fungi
A two-host rust fungus that forms small brown galls with orange jelly horns on juniper in spring, then orange leaf spots with tubular outgrowths on hawthorn.
Spore print · Not applicable
Apple Scab
Other Fungi
A leaf- and fruit-inhabiting sac fungus of apples and crabapples that produces sooty olive-green spots with fuzzy, feathered margins. It overwinters in fallen leaves, where its minute flask-shaped fruiting bodies form.
Spore print · Not applicable
Artillery Fungus
Other Fungi
A pinhead-sized fungus that splits into a tiny orange star and fires a single dark spore ball several metres into the air. It swarms over damp bark mulch and rotting wood.
Spore print · Not applicable (spores in one ejected ball)
Cedar-Apple Rust
Other Fungi
A rust fungus that alternates between junipers, where it forms brown galls that push out orange gelatinous horns in spring rain, and apples, where it makes bright orange leaf spots.
Spore print · Not applicable
Coffee Leaf Rust
Other Fungi
A tropical rust that dusts the undersides of coffee leaves with vivid orange-yellow powder beneath pale translucent spots on the upper surface.
Spore print · Not applicable (bright orange spore masses)
Desert Truffle
Other Fungi
A hypogeous ascomycete of arid steppe that forms pale, smooth-skinned tubers among sun-rose plants, with a reddish-brown gleba veined in white.
Spore print · Not applicable (hypogeous)
Dung-loving Bird's Nest
Other Fungi
A small dark bird's nest fungus, shaggy when young but smooth-walled inside, distinguished by its jet-black eggs and its habit of growing on dung and heavily manured ground.
Spore print · Not applicable (spores held in peridioles)
Earthfan
Other Fungi
A tough, fibrous fungus forming overlapping rust- to chocolate-brown fans and rosettes on sandy ground, with a pale fringed edge and a warty, purplish-brown underside. It is a familiar sight around young pines on heathland and in nurseries.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Eastern Cauliflower Mushroom
Other Fungi
A large cream rosette built from broad, flat, concentrically zoned leaf-like lobes, growing at the base of oaks and other hardwoods in eastern North America.
Spore print · White to pale yellow
Field Bird's Nest
Other Fungi
A small grey goblet with a widely flaring, often wavy mouth and a smooth inner wall, holding a few unusually large lead-grey discs. It favours open ground and plant litter rather than deep woodland.
Spore print · Not applicable (spores held in peridioles)
Fluted Bird's Nest
Other Fungi
A tiny vase-shaped fungus, shaggy and brown outside, with a silvery-grey inner wall marked by lengthwise grooves and a clutch of disc-like 'eggs' inside. The grooving separates it from every other common bird's nest fungus.
Spore print · Not applicable (spores held in peridioles)
Horn of Plenty
Other Fungi
A thin-fleshed, hollow, grey-black trumpet that grows in dense troops among leaf litter. Its funnel shape, near-smooth outer surface and lack of any true gills make it distinctive.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Italian White Truffle
Other Fungi
A hypogeous ascomycete with a smooth, velvety pale cream to ochre skin and a pinkish-hazel interior threaded by numerous fine white veins.
Spore print · Not applicable (hypogeous)
Kalahari Truffle
Other Fungi
A southern African desert truffle forming pale sandy-brown underground bodies among dune grasses, betrayed at the surface by small cracks in the sand.
Spore print · Not applicable (hypogeous)
Lace Lichen
Other Fungi
A pale greenish lichen that hangs in long lacy, net-like curtains from oak branches in coastal fog country, unmistakable for its mesh of interconnected strands.
Spore print · Not applicable
Lobster Mushroom
Other Fungi
Not a mushroom in its own right but a parasitic ascomycete that encases Russula and Lactarius fruitbodies in a pimpled, brilliant orange-red crust, twisting them into dense, contorted shapes.
Spore print · Not applicable
Maple Tar Spot
Other Fungi
An ascomycete that lacquers maple and sycamore leaves with glossy black, tar-like blotches ringed in yellow, then fruits from the fallen leaves the following spring.
Spore print · Not applicable
Methuselah's Beard Lichen
Other Fungi
The longest lichen in the world, hanging in pale greenish ropes several metres long with short perpendicular side branches like a bottlebrush.
Spore print · Not applicable
Myrtle Rust
Other Fungi
A rust of the myrtle family that coats expanding shoots, buds and young leaves in startling egg-yolk yellow spore powder, later leaving grey-brown scarred and distorted tissue.
Spore print · Not applicable (bright yellow spore masses)