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 “Ink cap mushroom (general)”
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
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
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
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
Amethyst Chanterelle
Gilled
A European chanterelle whose egg-yellow cap is dusted with small appressed amethyst to lilac scales. Below, it has the family's usual blunt yellow forking ridges running down a tapering stalk.
Spore print · Pale cream to yellowish
Bitter Oyster
Gilled
A small, tough, tan kidney-shaped bracket with a suede-textured cap and a stubby lateral stalk, growing in dense overlapping rows on hardwood; North American populations glow faintly green in the dark.
Spore print · White
Bare-toothed Brittlegill
Gilled
A firm, muted pinkish-brown brittlegill whose cap skin shrinks back from the rim to expose a fine pale line of gill ends. It partners with oak and beech on well-drained soils.
Spore print · White to very pale cream
Orange Birch Bolete
Boletes
A tall, striking bolete with a bright orange felty cap, a white stipe studded with blackish scabers, and white flesh that turns pinkish-grey and then near-black when cut. It grows only with birch.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Lilac Bonnet
Gilled
A litter-dwelling bonnet with a lilac, violet or pinkish cap, broad widely spaced gills and a strong radish smell. Colour varies widely, so the odour and gill structure matter more than the shade.
Spore print · White
Yellow Patches
Gilled
A small to medium eastern North American amanita with a glossy orange-yellow cap sprinkled with bright chrome-yellow flakes of universal veil. The same yellow material dusts the ring and the swollen stem base.
Spore print · White
Pink Domecap
Gilled
A small grassland fungus with a neat rose-pink dome-shaped cap and matching pink stipe, contrasting sharply with crowded white gills. The white spore print separates it from the pink-spored grassland species.
Spore print · White
Landscape Morel
Morels & Allies
A black-clade morel that fruits in bark mulch, flower beds and freshly landscaped ground rather than in forest. Its cap pits are arranged in unusually neat vertical rows, giving a ladder-like appearance.
Spore print · Cream to pale yellow
Chestnut Dapperling
Gilled
A small woodland dapperling whose pale cap is broken into fine, dark chestnut-brown granular scales arranged in rough concentric rings, on a slender stem sheathed with the same rusty scaling below a vanishing ring.
Spore print · White
Stinking Dapperling
Gilled
A small white dapperling whose cap carries a smooth reddish-brown central disc surrounded by rings of small brown scales. It grows in troops on lawns, verges and woodland margins and has a sharp rubbery odour.
Spore print · White
Orange Mycena
Gilled
A vividly orange, sticky-capped bonnet that grows in dense tufts on hardwood logs and is instantly recognised by the bright orange edges of its otherwise pale gills.
Spore print · White
Velvet Milkcap
Gilled
A striking dark chocolate-brown milkcap with a dry velvety, wrinkled cap and startlingly white gills, whose white latex stains the flesh salmon-pink. It grows with spruce and fir in mossy northern and montane conifer forest.
Spore print · Pale yellow to ochre