Mushroom Identifier

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 Red-Capped Butter Bolete

Crepidotus crocophyllus

Crepidotus crocophyllus

Gilled

A stalkless fan-shaped wood fungus with a whitish cap flecked with tawny-brown scales and distinctive saffron to orange-yellow gills that age brown. It fruits on decaying hardwood.

Spore print · Brown to cinnamon-brown

Bearded Fieldcap

Bearded Fieldcap

Gilled

A firm, pale cream fieldcap of grassy places whose cap often cracks in dry weather and hangs shreds of white veil from the margin, giving it a bearded look.

Spore print · Dull brown to snuff brown

Springtime Amanita

Springtime Amanita

Gilled

A spring-fruiting California amanita with a salmon-orange to peach cap, a strongly grooved margin, buff-tinted gills, and a thick sac-like volva. The ring is usually absent.

Spore print · White

Fly Agaric

Fly Agaric

Gilled

The archetypal storybook mushroom: a scarlet or orange cap sprinkled with white warts, standing on a white stem with a skirt-like ring and a bulbous base ringed by concentric scaly girdles.

Spore print · White

Nameko

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

Yellow Fieldcap

Yellow Fieldcap

Gilled

An extremely fragile, short-lived agaric whose slimy egg-yolk yellow cap expands, fades to grey and collapses within a day, leaving a rusty ochre spore print.

Spore print · Rusty ochre-brown

Sepia Brittlegill

Sepia Brittlegill

Gilled

A dull sepia-brown brittlegill of grassy parkland and path edges, recognised by its strongly ridged cap margin and strong unpleasant odour. It is typically found under oak and lime.

Spore print · Cream

Peeling Oysterling

Peeling Oysterling

Gilled

A stalkless buff to tan bracket-like gilled fungus on dead hardwood, unique for its gelatinous cap skin that stretches like rubber when peeled back from the margin.

Spore print · Snuff-brown

Cortinarius rubellus

Cortinarius rubellus

Gilled

A slender foxy-orange webcap of mossy conifer forest, recognised by its sharply umbonate fibrillose cap, thick widely spaced rusty gills and pale yellow bands on the stipe.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Golden-edge Bonnet

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

Hebeloma mesophaeum

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

Egghead Mottlegill

Egghead Mottlegill

Gilled

A pale, egg-shaped dung fungus with mottled grey-black gills and, unusually for the genus, a distinct membranous ring on a long slender stipe. The cap is often shiny and wrinkled as it dries.

Spore print · Black

Cinnamon Bracket

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

Hen of the Woods

Hen of the Woods

Polypores

A large rosette of many overlapping grey-brown spoon-shaped caps rising from a branched white stalk at the foot of oaks, with a white pore surface running down the branches.

Spore print · White

Giant Puffball

Giant Puffball

Puffballs

An unmistakable white sphere that can reach the size of a football or larger, appearing in grassland and hedgerows. It has no stipe, no gills and no cap, and its interior ripens from firm white to a powdery olive-brown spore mass.

Spore print · Olive-brown (spore mass)

Tiger's Eye

Tiger's Eye

Polypores

A small, thin, leathery funnel-shaped polypore on a slender central stalk, its cap silky and banded in concentric rings of rust, ochre and grey-brown with a brown pore surface underneath.

Spore print · Yellowish brown

Piggyback Rosegill

Piggyback Rosegill

Gilled

A small white silky mushroom with a sac-like volva that grows directly out of the decaying caps of Clouded Funnel. Its free gills turn pink and it is one of the few fungicolous agarics.

Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink

Scaly Shield

Scaly Shield

Gilled

A large pale shield mushroom whose whitish cap carries brown fibrillose scales over the centre, with free gills flushing pink and a stout ringless stem. It favours sawdust and mulch.

Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink

Oakbug Milkcap

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

Pluteus admirabilis

Pluteus admirabilis

Gilled

A very small, delicate golden-yellow shield mushroom with a wrinkled cap centre, a strongly lined margin and free gills that flush pink. It is common on decaying hardwood in eastern North America.

Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink

Tiger Sawgill

Tiger Sawgill

Gilled

A tough little funnel-shaped agaric with a cream cap streaked with dark tiger-like scales, deeply decurrent saw-edged gills and a scaly stem, growing on waterlogged willow and poplar.

Spore print · White

Dog Stinkhorn

Dog Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A slim, delicate stinkhorn whose tapering pale stalk ends in an orange tip smeared with dark spore slime. It has no separate cap, which distinguishes it from the larger Phallus species.

Spore print · Olive-brown (spores in the slimy gleba)

Cortinarius orellanus

Cortinarius orellanus

Gilled

A medium-sized tawny webcap of oak and beech woodland with a dry, finely scaly convex cap, thick distant cinnamon gills and a tapering yellow-brown stipe without veil belts.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Green Skinhead

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