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 Scaber Stalk

Hooded False Morel

Hooded False Morel

Morels & Allies

An autumn false morel whose tan to dark reddish-brown cap is folded into a two- or three-lobed saddle or mitre rather than a brain. It grows on well-rotted conifer wood and woody debris.

Spore print · White to pale yellowish

Ghost Fungus

Ghost Fungus

Gilled

A large Australian bracket-forming mushroom with a cream cap mottled in grey, blue and purple tones, decurrent white gills and a short eccentric stipe; its gills emit a striking greenish glow at night.

Spore print · White to cream

Cortinarius gentilis

Cortinarius gentilis

Gilled

A small, slender, tawny-orange webcap of mossy conifer forest, with thick widely spaced ochre gills and yellowish veil bands on a slim stem. Its dry silky cap carries a sharp umbo.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Flowerpot Parasol

Flowerpot Parasol

Gilled

A slender, brilliant sulphur-yellow mushroom that appears overnight in the pots of houseplants and in greenhouse beds, with a powdery pleated cap and a fragile ringed stem. It collapses within a day, often before anyone notices it opened.

Spore print · White

Grey Milkcap

Grey Milkcap

Gilled

A thin-fleshed lilac-grey milkcap of damp birch woods whose white latex dries grey-green on the gills. The greasy, smooth cap and grey-staining pale gills are its key marks.

Spore print · Pale cream

Grey Knight

Grey Knight

Gilled

A soft grey knight of pine woods, with a dry cap densely covered in fine radiating fibrils and scales, white sinuate gills and a brittle white stipe. It is the commonest of a confusing group of grey Tricholoma species.

Spore print · White

Man on Horseback

Man on Horseback

Gilled

A stout, sulphur-yellow-gilled Tricholoma with a greasy olive-yellow cap that is usually half-buried in sand under pines. Its notched bright yellow gills and ringless pale stem are the key characters.

Spore print · White

Milky Mushroom

Milky Mushroom

Gilled

A stout, entirely milk-white tropical mushroom with a thick fleshy cap, crowded white gills and a solid club-shaped stipe. It fruits from casing soil over composting straw in hot, humid conditions.

Spore print · White

Slender Parasol

Slender Parasol

Gilled

A tall, elegantly slim parasol whose pale cap carries a distinctly pointed nipple at the centre and only fine, sparse scales. Its stem is slender and faintly fibrillose rather than boldly snakeskin-patterned.

Spore print · White

Rainbow Chanterelle

Rainbow Chanterelle

Gilled

A conifer-associated chanterelle whose young cap carries a distinctive pinkish to salmon bloom over orange, contrasting with vivid egg-yolk false gills. It grows with spruce and pine across northern North America.

Spore print · Pale yellow to cream

Contrary Webcap

Contrary Webcap

Gilled

A stout conifer webcap whose warm orange-tawny cap contrasts sharply with brilliant violet-blue young gills and a thick white club-shaped stem. Rusty brown spores overtake the blue with age.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Blue Spot Knight

Blue Spot Knight

Gilled

A silky, pure white woodland knight whose cap and stipe base develop distinctive blue-green or pinkish spots and streaks with age. The white sinuate gills and complete absence of a volva place it firmly in Tricholoma.

Spore print · White

Porcini

Porcini

Boletes

The archetypal stout bolete, with a smooth brown bun-shaped cap, white pores ageing yellow-olive, and a swollen pale stipe netted with fine white reticulation. Flesh stays white and unchanging when cut.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Pale Bolete

Pale Bolete

Boletes

A softly coloured hardwood bolete with a pale buff to whitish cap and white pores that yellow with age and may stain slowly blue-green.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Purple Brittlegill

Purple Brittlegill

Gilled

A common brittlegill with a deep purple cap darkening almost to black at the centre, cream gills and a firm white stipe that ages dirty grey.

Spore print · Pale cream

Flaming Scalycap

Flaming Scalycap

Gilled

A brilliant golden-yellow scalycap covered in pointed sulphur-yellow scales on both cap and stipe, fruiting on mossy conifer stumps and logs.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Garlic Parachute

Garlic Parachute

Gilled

A slender beech-litter mushroom with a pale hygrophanous cap on a disproportionately long, velvety blackish rooting stem, and an unmistakable strong garlic smell.

Spore print · White

Bruising Webcap

Bruising Webcap

Gilled

A robust webcap with a slimy streaky olive-brown cap whose violet gills and flesh flush deep purple wherever they are rubbed or cut.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Dingy Twiglet

Dingy Twiglet

Gilled

A small, sombre olive-brown woodland mushroom with a finely velvety cap and a pale frosted gill edge, fruiting on fallen deciduous branches.

Spore print · Olive-brown to snuff brown

Graceful Bolete

Graceful Bolete

Boletes

A slim, long-stemmed bolete with a velvety chestnut cap, white pores that age flesh-pink, and an unusual pinkish-brown spore print.

Spore print · Pinkish to reddish-brown

Mild Milkcap

Mild Milkcap

Gilled

A small, abundant reddish-brown milkcap of beech litter with a dry unzoned cap, crowded pale gills and copious white latex that dries whey-like on the gills. It often fruits in large troops beneath mature beech.

Spore print · Cream to pale buff

Frayed Parasol

Frayed Parasol

Gilled

A medium-sized pale parasol of open pasture whose cap cuticle splits and peels back at the edge, leaving a characteristically frayed, ragged margin over white flesh. Its stem is plain whitish with no snakeskin pattern.

Spore print · White

Powdery Piggyback

Powdery Piggyback

Gilled

A small parasitic mushroom that grows on decaying blackening brittlegills, its rounded white cap soon breaking into a brown powdery mass of asexual spores.

Spore print · White, rarely produced

Orange Pinwheel

Orange Pinwheel

Gilled

A vivid rusty-orange miniature with a pleated, umbrella-like cap held on a wiry blackish thread of a stem, scattered through damp hardwood litter.

Spore print · White