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.
Hanging spines instead of gills or pores
Bleeding Tooth Fungus
Toothed
A knobbly, cream-white tooth fungus whose growing surface exudes vivid blood-red droplets, fruiting in conifer duff and often fusing with its neighbours into irregular crusted masses.
Spore print · Brown
Hedgehog Mushroom
Toothed
A cream to pale apricot mushroom whose underside is covered in crowded, brittle, easily detached spines instead of gills or pores. It grows in troops and arcs on mossy woodland floors and often has an off-centre stipe.
Spore print · White to cream
Lion's Mane
Toothed
An unmistakable white cushion of long, downward-hanging spines that grows from wounds on standing hardwoods, looking like a frozen waterfall or a shaggy mane.
Spore print · White
Bear's Head Tooth
Toothed
A large white hardwood fungus built from branching arms whose tips carry dense tufts of long, icicle-like spines. Its cascading, shaggy outline makes it one of the most recognisable fungi in eastern North American forests.
Spore print · White
Black Tooth
Toothed
A tough, dark, ground-dwelling toothed fungus with a velvety blue-black cap, a pale rim and grey spines. Unusually for a dark hydnoid, it drops a white spore print.
Spore print · White
Blue Tooth
Toothed
A corky ground-dwelling toothed fungus recognised by the blue tint of its growing margin and the two-toned blue and orange zoning revealed when it is sliced lengthwise.
Spore print · Brown
Coral Tooth Fungus
Toothed
A delicately branched white fungus whose thin arms carry short spines in neat rows along their undersides. It grows on dead broadleaf wood and looks like a piece of white marine coral fixed to a log.
Spore print · White
Depressed Hedgehog
Toothed
A small toothed fungus with an orange-tan cap dimpled at the centre and an underside of crowded brittle spines. It grows in sphagnum and moss beds under conifers.
Spore print · White
Ear-pick Fungus
Toothed
A miniature dark brown toothed fungus with a kidney-shaped hairy cap on a slender side-attached stalk, growing directly from decaying pine cones. Its shape recalls an old-fashioned ear-pick.
Spore print · White
Hericium abietis
Toothed
The largest of the western toothed corals, forming cream-white branched masses on dead conifer wood. It is the conifer counterpart of the hardwood-loving Hericium species and can reach the size of a football or larger.
Spore print · White
Milk-white Toothed Polypore
Toothed
A white resupinate fungus whose surface breaks from angular pores into flattened jagged teeth, usually with narrow hairy-topped caps along the margin.
Spore print · White
Northern Tooth
Toothed
A massive tiered fungus that forms overlapping cream-coloured shelves high on living maple trunks, recognised by the crowded pendant spines that hang beneath each bracket instead of pores.
Spore print · White
Ochre Spreading Tooth
Toothed
A spreading crust whose surface is packed with short salmon to ochre spines, often with a narrow, white-hairy shelf turned out along the upper edge. It grows on dead broadleaf branches and logs throughout temperate woodland.
Spore print · White
Orange Tooth
Toothed
A corky ground-dwelling toothed fungus with a white growing rim, a rusty orange body and a stout felted stalk. Cut vertically it shows uniformly orange-brown zoned flesh.
Spore print · Brown
Shingled Hedgehog
Toothed
A large brown toothed fungus whose cap is covered with coarse, dark, upturned scales arranged like roof shingles. It grows on the ground under conifers and drops a brown spore print.
Spore print · Brown
Terracotta Hedgehog
Toothed
A small orange-buff hedgehog fungus whose cap underside carries crowded brittle spines instead of gills. It is slimmer and distinctly warmer in colour than the common Wood Hedgehog.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Woolly Tooth
Toothed
A thin, leathery toothed fungus forming zoned cinnamon funnels that fuse into rosettes across mossy conifer floors. Its white spore print separates it from the similar brown-spored Hydnellum species.
Spore print · White
Zoned Tooth
Toothed
A thin, tough toothed fungus whose flattened cap is marked with strong concentric bands of pink, white and brown. Neighbouring fruiting bodies often fuse into irregular sheets across the woodland floor.
Spore print · Brown