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.
Showing results for “American yellow fly agaric”
Early Morel
Morels & Allies
A thimble-capped spring ascomycete whose longitudinally wrinkled, tan to yellow-brown cap hangs free from the very top of the stalk like a bell. The stalk is stuffed with loose cottony pith rather than being hollow.
Spore print · Pale yellow to cream
Common Earthball
Puffballs
A hard, squat, dirty-yellow ball with a thick rind broken into coarse polygonal warts, sitting half-buried on acid woodland soil. Cut vertically it shows a firm marbled purple-black interior even when young.
Spore print · Purple-black to blackish brown (spore mass)
Jelly Baby
Jellies
A small rubbery club fungus with a slimy ochre-yellow head perched on a paler stalk, usually appearing in troops on damp woodland soil. Its gelatinous texture and irregular, inrolled cap margin make it unlike any true gilled mushroom.
Spore print · Whitish (rarely taken)
Scaly Wood Mushroom
Gilled
A tall woodland Agaricus clothed in dark reddish-brown fibrous scales, whose white flesh turns vivid blood-red within seconds of being cut. Fruits in conifer and mixed forest litter.
Spore print · Dark brown
Horse Mushroom
Gilled
A large, robust white grassland Agaricus with a distinctive double 'cogwheel' ring, greyish-white young gills that turn chocolate-brown, and a strong aniseed odour. It forms troops and rings in open pasture.
Spore print · Dark chocolate-brown
White Button Mushroom
Gilled
The familiar rounded white Agaricus with free gills that shift from pale pink to dark brown and a soft ring on the stipe. Wild forms grow on rich, composted or manured ground rather than on wood.
Spore print · Dark chocolate brown
Button Mushroom
Gilled
A stocky white or tan Agaricus with free gills that run from pale pink through cocoa to blackish brown, a simple membranous ring, and no volva at the stem base.
Spore print · Dark chocolate brown
Meadow Mushroom
Gilled
The classic white grassland Agaricus, with free gills that shift from bright pink to chocolate-brown, a simple fragile ring and a dark brown spore print. It appears in troops and rings on old pasture after rain.
Spore print · Dark chocolate-brown
Field Mushroom
Gilled
The classic white mushroom of old pasture, with a dry silky cap, a thin fragile ring and gills that are a vivid bright pink when young before turning chocolate-brown. It fruits in troops and rings after rain.
Spore print · Dark brown
Barometer Earthstar
Puffballs
A tough star-shaped gasteroid fungus whose thick rays open in damp weather and curl shut again as they dry. Despite the name it is not a true earthstar, sitting instead among the bolete relatives.
Spore print · Dark brown
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
Angel's Bonnet
Gilled
A late-fruiting bonnet with an olive-grey to yellowish cap and a slender stem, growing in tufts on mossy hardwood. Fresh material carries a distinctive iodine-like smell.
Spore print · White
Witch's Hair Lichen
Other Fungi
A pale yellowish-green hanging lichen forming soft tangled tresses on conifer branches, distinguished from beard lichens by the complete absence of a central cord.
Spore print · Not applicable
Fool's Webcap
Gilled
A warm foxy-brown webcap of southern broadleaf woodland with thick, widely spaced saffron-rust gills and a plain yellowish stem carrying only faint cobwebby veil fibres.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Snow Fungus
Jellies
A near-transparent white jelly fungus forming a rosette of thin, frilly, seaweed-like lobes on dead broadleaf branches, drying to a hard yellowish crust and reviving with rain.
Spore print · White
Fragile Dapperling
Gilled
Perhaps the most insubstantial gilled mushroom in the field guide: a wafer-thin, deeply pleated yellowish-green cap stretched over its gills like a parasol skin, on a stem no thicker than a wire. It collapses to a smear within hours of opening.
Spore print · White