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 “Liberty Cap”
Red Edge Brittlestem
Gilled
A delicate brittlestem with a small bell-shaped cap on a long, thread-like white stem, and gills whose edges are flushed pink to reddish. The stem base often tapers into a rooting point.
Spore print · Blackish purple-brown
Tuberous Polypore
Polypores
A stout stalked polypore with a scaly ochre cap, fringed margin and large white decurrent pores, often arising from a hard, stone-like underground mass of soil-bound mycelium.
Spore print · White
Scaly Webcap
Gilled
A strikingly shaggy webcap covered in dark brown erect scales on both cap and stem, with violet-tinged young gills and a violaceous stem apex. It partners with birch on damp acid soils.
Spore print · Rusty 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
Velvet Rollrim
Gilled
A robust brown mushroom of conifer stumps with a suede-textured inrolled cap, decurrent forking gills that peel away from the flesh, and a thick stem clad in dark brown-black velvet.
Spore print · Yellowish-brown
Parasola auricoma
Gilled
A delicate pleated inkcap of mulch and path edges whose young cap carries scattered stiff brown hairs, visible with a hand lens, that give the species its golden-haired name.
Spore print · Black
Orange Bonnet
Gilled
A minute bonnet with a vivid orange to orange-red cap perched on a slender yellow stem, fruiting on wet twigs and fallen debris. Its size is measured in millimetres but its colour is unmistakable.
Spore print · White
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
Deer Shield
Gilled
The commonest of the shield mushrooms, with a deer-brown silky cap, free gills that turn from white to salmon-pink, and a fibrous ringless stem. It fruits on decaying wood almost year-round.
Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink
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
Birch Brittlegill
Gilled
A small, delicate brittlegill with a pale rosy or almost white cap, found only with birch on wet acid ground. Its thin flesh and grooved margin make it one of the frailest of the genus.
Spore print · White
Parasol Mushroom
Gilled
One of the largest European grassland agarics, recognised by its drumstick-shaped young form, shaggy brown cap scales and a snakeskin-patterned stem carrying a thick, movable double ring.
Spore print · White
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
Coccora
Gilled
A large, handsome Pacific coast amanita with a deep orange-brown cap that usually carries one thick, felty white patch of veil, a lined margin, and a deep sac-like volva.
Spore print · White
Bonfire Scalycap
Gilled
A small sticky-capped scalycap restricted to burnt ground and charcoal, with a tawny centre, pale yellow margin and a brown spore print.
Spore print · Brown
Green Pepe
Gilled
A very small, sticky-capped tropical Mycena whose gills and stipe emit a soft green light at night. It fruits in clusters on decaying palm fronds, bamboo and twiggy litter after warm rain.
Spore print · White
Yellowfoot Chanterelle
Gilled
A slender late-season funnel with a brown wavy cap, widely spaced grey-yellow forking ridges beneath, and a hollow yellow stipe. It fruits in large troops through moss and conifer litter.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Straw Mushroom
Gilled
A tropical decomposer that emerges as a dark egg wrapped in a membrane, then expands to a grey-brown cap on a ringless stipe seated in a sac-like volva. Its gills turn pink and the spore print is salmon.
Spore print · Salmon pink
Smoky Bracket
Polypores
A thin, flexible shelf fungus recognised by the sharp contrast between its pale buff cap, white flesh and strikingly smoke-grey to blackish pore surface that darkens further where handled.
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
Onion-stalk Parasol
Gilled
A soft white parasol with a mealy, pleated cap and a stem that swells into an onion-shaped bulb before tapering to a point. It fruits in crowded clusters on wood chips, mulch and compost, often dozens at a time.
Spore print · White
Yellowfoot
Gilled
A slender late-season funnel fungus with a brown perforated cap, greyish blunt ridges and a hollow, bright yellow stalk. It carpets mossy conifer floors and well-rotted wood in large troops.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Yellowdrop Milkcap
Gilled
A pale pinkish-buff oak associate whose white latex turns brilliant sulphur yellow within seconds of exposure. Faint concentric cap zoning and a whitish hollow stipe complete the picture.
Spore print · Pale cream
Mossy Maze Polypore
Polypores
A thin, tough shelf fungus with a coarsely hairy grey-white cap that is usually stained green by algae, and a distinctive greyish maze-like pore surface that breaks up into blunt teeth with age.
Spore print · White