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

Phoenix Oyster Mushroom

Phoenix Oyster Mushroom

Gilled

The warm-season oyster mushroom, with paler, thinner, more lung-shaped caps than the common oyster and a more clearly developed lateral stem.

Spore print · White to pale lilac-grey

Russet Toughshank

Gilled

One of the commonest litter mushrooms of oak woods: a smooth russet-brown cap on a slim, tough, hollow stem, fruiting in troops for much of the year.

Spore print · White to pale cream

Conifer Tuft

Conifer Tuft

Gilled

A tightly clustered woodland fungus of conifer stumps, recognised by its tan-ochre cap and gills that shift from whitish to a distinctive smoky grey.

Spore print · Purple-brown

Gassy Webcap

Gassy Webcap

Gilled

A stout lilac webcap of northern conifer forest with dry silky cap, ochre-saffron marbled flesh and a strong penetrating gas-like smell.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Black Poplar Mushroom

Black Poplar Mushroom

Gilled

A clustered brown-spored wood mushroom with a smooth two-toned cap that cracks in dry weather, a pale fibrous stipe and a persistent membranous ring.

Spore print · Tobacco brown

Golden Oyster

Golden Oyster

Gilled

A clustered oyster mushroom with bright lemon to golden-yellow caps that flatten into shallow funnels, with white decurrent gills on fused off-centre stalks.

Spore print · White to pale lilac-grey

Frosty Funnel

Frosty Funnel

Gilled

A white woodland funnel whose cap carries a silky, frost-like bloom, growing in troops and arcs through deep autumn leaf litter.

Spore print · White to pale cream

Pale Milkcap

Pale Milkcap

Gilled

A plain, pale pinkish-buff milkcap of beech woods with a smooth, slightly greasy cap, crowded pale gills and copious white latex that does not change colour. Its very lack of markings is its most useful field character.

Spore print · Pale cream

Neonothopanus gardneri

Gilled

A large Brazilian bracket-like agaric that grows from the leaf bases of babassu palms and glows a vivid yellow-green after dark. Its off-centre stipe, funnel-shaped tan cap and strongly decurrent gills are diagnostic.

Spore print · White

Giant Cypress Agaricus

Gilled

A giant west-coast Agaricus of coastal cypress and pine groves, with a heavy brown-scaled cap that can reach 30 cm and a thick, patchy ring. Fruits in the winter rains.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Powdery Brittlegill

Powdery Brittlegill

Gilled

A medium-sized brittlegill with a matt, slate-blue to grey-green cap covered in a fine frosted bloom. It is common with oak in parks, avenues and open woodland.

Spore print · Cream

Scaly Rustgill

Scaly Rustgill

Gilled

A small to medium tawny-yellow woodland mushroom of conifer debris, with a finely scaly cap, yellow gills that rust with age, and a bright rusty spore print.

Spore print · Rusty orange-brown

Wrinkled Peach

Wrinkled Peach

Gilled

An unmistakable rubbery-fleshed mushroom whose apricot to salmon cap is embossed with a raised network of pale ridges, growing on dead elm and other decaying hardwood.

Spore print · Pink

Wrinkled Fieldcap

Wrinkled Fieldcap

Gilled

A tall pale fieldcap of fresh woodchip, recognised by its distinctly wrinkled and veined cap surface and the large flaring ring hanging from a white stipe.

Spore print · Dark brown

Galerina marginata

Galerina marginata

Gilled

A small, ringed, tawny-brown wood-rotting agaric with a strongly hygrophanous cap and a rusty spore print, fruiting in troops on decaying logs and mossy stumps.

Spore print · Rust-brown

Firerug Inkcap

Firerug Inkcap

Gilled

An inkcap identified by the rusty-orange felted mycelial mat, the ozonium, that carpets the wood it grows from. The tawny cap is grooved and dusted with pale granular veil.

Spore print · Black

Golden Scalycap

Golden Scalycap

Gilled

A striking golden-orange Pholiota that fruits from wounds high on broadleaf trunks, with a glutinous cap bearing flattened darker scales and a rusty spore print.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Almond Mushroom

Almond Mushroom

Gilled

A warm-climate Agaricus of compost and enriched garden soil, recognised by its brown-fibrillose cap, large pendulous ring and strong almond-like aroma.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Branched Oyster Mushroom

Branched Oyster Mushroom

Gilled

A cream to ochre oyster mushroom with deeply funnel-shaped caps growing in branched bouquets, identified by gills that run down the stem and fuse into a raised network.

Spore print · White to pale lilac

Grass-green Russula

Gilled

An evenly grass-green brittlegill of birch woods, distinguished by its smooth unpatched cap, cream-ochre spore print and rusty spotting on ageing gills.

Spore print · Cream to pale ochre

Greencracked Brittlegill

Greencracked Brittlegill

Gilled

An unmistakable brittlegill whose firm green cap breaks up into a mosaic of angular verrucose patches, paired with white brittle gills and a plain white stipe.

Spore print · White

Coker's Amanita

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

Spectacular Rustgill

Spectacular Rustgill

Gilled

A big, showy orange-tawny agaric that fruits in massive clusters at the base of broadleaf stumps, with a fibrillose scaly cap, ringed stipe and rusty orange spore print.

Spore print · Rusty orange-brown

Craterellus lutescens

Craterellus lutescens

Gilled

A slender funnel-shaped fungus with a scurfy brown cap, a bright orange-yellow hollow stalk and an almost smooth orange underside rather than distinct ridges.

Spore print · White to pale cream