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 “Not a mushroom/fungus”
Anther Smut
Other Fungi
A smut of the pink family that replaces a flower's pollen with a dusty violet-brown spore mass, turning campion anthers into spore dispensers carried by pollinating insects.
Spore print · Not applicable (violet-brown spore mass)
Alder Bolete
Boletes
A soft, pale bolete restricted to damp alder carr, with shallow decurrent yellow pores that instantly bruise blue-black. Fruitbodies are often lopsided and clustered.
Spore print · Olive to yellowish-brown
Alder Scalycap
Gilled
A tufted lemon-yellow Pholiota of wet woodland that grows on alder and birch stumps, with a smooth slightly sticky cap, sweetish scent and clay-brown spore print.
Spore print · Clay-brown to rust-brown
Ash-tree Bolete
Boletes
An unusual bolete found only near ash trees, with an off-centre stipe and a shallow, vein-like yellow pore surface that radiates outward like gill folds.
Spore print · Olive-brown to yellow-brown
Aniseed Funnel
Gilled
An unmistakable woodland funnel with a soft blue-green cap and a powerful aniseed scent, growing scattered through autumn leaf litter under broadleaf trees.
Spore print · Pale cream to very pale pink
Amber Jelly Roll
Jellies
A translucent amber to tawny-brown jelly forming top-shaped blobs hanging from dead willow twigs, each narrowed to a small point of attachment.
Spore print · White
Frost's Amanita
Gilled
A small, brightly coloured eastern amanita with an orange cap, a strongly grooved margin, pale yellow warts, and a rounded bulb finished with a distinct collar-like rim.
Spore print · White
Arched Earthstar
Puffballs
A tall earthstar that stands on four arched, leg-like rays with their tips anchored in a cup of mycelium, holding the stalked spore sac well clear of the ground.
Spore print · Dark brown (spore mass)
Aspen Scaber Stalk
Boletes
A North American scaber stalk of aspen groves, with an orange-brown cap, dark scabers even when young, and pale flesh that greys and takes on lilac tones when cut.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Verdigris Agaric
Gilled
A striking woodland roundhead with a slimy verdigris blue-green cap flecked with white veil scales at the margin, a scaly ringed stem and gills that mature to purple-brown.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Cleft-foot Amanita
Gilled
An eastern North American amanita recognised by its dark brown, patch-flecked cap and by the abrupt basal bulb that splits into vertical clefts. Cut or bruised tissue slowly darkens to reddish brown.
Spore print · White
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
Franchet's Amanita
Gilled
A European amanita with an olive- to grey-brown cap sprinkled with soft yellow warts, a yellow-edged ring, and yellow veil belts on a swollen stem base.
Spore print · White
Grey Veiled Amanita
Gilled
A conifer-loving amanita with a smooth greyish-brown cap washed with purple, a grey membranous ring, and an abrupt rounded bulb finished with a sharp rim.
Spore print · White
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
Gemmed Amanita
Gilled
A pale buff-yellow Amanita with scattered white cottony veil patches, a fragile ring and a small basal bulb finished with a narrow free collar.
Spore print · White
Flat-topped Agaricus
Gilled
A North American woodland Agaricus with a characteristically flat-topped, grey-scaled cap, a bulbous stipe base that flushes chrome-yellow and a sharp inky odour.
Spore print · Dark chocolate brown
Powdery Amanita
Gilled
A small, slender, ringless amanita whose grey-brown cap looks dusted with flour, with a strongly grooved margin and only powdery grey remnants at the slightly swollen base.
Spore print · White
Azalea Leaf Gall
Other Fungi
A basidiomycete that converts azalea leaves and buds into thick, fleshy, pale green to pink bladder-like galls. Mature galls develop a chalky white bloom of basidiospores before browning and hardening.
Spore print · White (surface bloom)
Smith's Amanita
Gilled
A white Pacific Northwest amanita with soft cottony veil patches, a fragile ragged ring, and a tapering, spindle-shaped rooting stem base rather than a sac.
Spore print · White
Coker's Amanita
Gilled
A large, imposing white amanita whose cap is armoured with sharply pointed, downward-curving warts, and whose rooting bulb is ringed with rows of recurved scales.
Spore print · White
Panaeolus antillarum
Gilled
A comparatively large, pale-capped dung mottlegill of warm regions, with a smooth whitish to cream cap that cracks in dry weather and heavily mottled blackening gills.
Spore print · Black
Yellow-veiled Amanita
Gilled
A western North American amanita with a dark brown to olive cap sprinkled with vivid golden warts, a yellow-edged ring, and yellow veil belts on the bulbous base.
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