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 “Chicken of the Woods”
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
Ruby Bolete
Boletes
A small, brilliantly red-capped bolete of parks and grassy woodland edges, recognised by yellow pores that bruise blue and tiny carrot-orange dots in the stem base.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Lantern Stinkhorn
Stinkhorns
Recognisable by its distinctly ribbed, angular stalk that ends in a cluster of short arms fused into a lantern-like point, with dark spore slime on the inner arm faces.
Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)
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
Freckled Dapperling
Gilled
A stout dapperling of nettle beds and rich ground, its dry ochre-brown cap bristling with erect pyramidal spines that rub off at a touch and its gills forking near the stem.
Spore print · White
Giant Polypore
Polypores
A huge overlapping rosette of tan-brown zoned fans at the foot of beech and other broadleaves, with a fine white pore surface that turns black wherever it is touched.
Spore print · White
Brown Shaggy Parasol
Gilled
A robust parasol of gardens and compost-enriched ground, with coarse brown cap scales, reddening flesh, a thick double ring and an abruptly rimmed bulb at the stem base.
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
Basket Fungus
Stinkhorns
A white latticed sphere of spongy arms that hatches from a gelatinous egg and, uniquely, detaches at maturity so the whole basket can be rolled about by wind.
Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)
Cinnamon Bracket
Polypores
A soft, evenly cinnamon-coloured bracket whose cap, flesh and pores are all the same warm ochre-brown, and which turns brilliant violet where a drop of alkali touches it.
Spore print · White
Shaggy Scalycap
Gilled
A dry, straw-yellow mushroom bristling all over with recurved brown scales, growing in crowded clumps at the foot of trunks and giving a rusty brown spore print.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Dark Honey Fungus
Gilled
A robust clustered honey fungus of conifer forests with a dark-scaly reddish-brown cap and a thick white ring edged with brown scales, spreading through the soil by black shoestring rhizomorphs.
Spore print · White
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
Appalachian Chanterelle
Gilled
A slender, small chanterelle with a brownish to olive-brown cap contrasting against pale yellow false gills. It is characteristic of hardwood slopes in and around the Appalachian Mountains.
Spore print · Pale yellow to cream
Liver Milkcap
Gilled
A small dark liver-brown milkcap of pine litter on acid soils, whose white latex turns clear yellow when blotted onto a white cloth. It fruits late in the season, often in dense troops among needles and moss.
Spore print · Pale cream with pinkish tinge
Blue Band Brittlegill
Gilled
A modestly sized conifer brittlegill with a delicately lilac to azure cap dusted with a fine bloom, often paler or ochre-tinted at the centre. Its gills and spore deposit stay close to white.
Spore print · White to palest cream
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
Orange Peel Fungus
Cups & Discs
Brilliant orange, thin and brittle cups that flatten, split and contort until they look exactly like scattered pieces of orange peel. It fruits in troops on bare compacted soil, track sides and gravelly ground.
Spore print · White
Banded Mottlegill
Gilled
A widespread mottlegill of compost heaps and manured ground, recognised by a hygrophanous reddish-brown cap that dries with a darker band around the margin and a jet-black spore print.
Spore print · Black
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
Deadly Webcap
Gilled
A slender tawny webcap of damp northern conifer forest, identified by its sharply pointed cap umbo, widely spaced rusty gills, and pale yellow fibrous bands girdling the stem.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Pluteus thomsonii
Gilled
A small grey-brown shield mushroom whose cap is crossed by a conspicuous network of raised pale veins, with fine ridges continuing onto the stem. It grows on decaying hardwood.
Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink
Silverleaf Fungus
Crusts
A thin, tiered crust with turned-out bracket edges: white and hairy above, smooth violet-purple below. It is the cause of silver leaf in plums, cherries and other rosaceous trees.
Spore print · White
Pepperpot Earthstar
Puffballs
The only earthstar with a spore sac perforated by many mouths and propped on a cluster of little columns, like a pepper pot on legs. A scarce, unmistakable species of dry sandy ground.
Spore print · Brown