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”
Meadow Waxcap
Gilled
A robust apricot-buff waxcap with a dry, matt cap, thick pale decurrent gills running well down the stem, and a stout stipe tapering to the base.
Spore print · White
Oak Crust
Crusts
A thin lilac-grey waxy crust on dead oak twigs that curls away from the bark as it dries, exposing a dark brown to black under-surface.
Spore print · White
Pearly Webcap
Gilled
A pale silvery-violet webcap of broadleaf woodland with a silky, pearl-sheened cap and a club-shaped stipe wrapped in a whitish veil sheath.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Western Gall Rust
Other Fungi
A rust of hard pines that swells branches into round woody galls which split each spring and release clouds of bright orange spores.
Spore print · Not applicable (orange spore masses)
Surprise Webcap
Gilled
A drab olive-brown webcap of sandy conifer ground that hides vivid blood-red gills beneath an unremarkable cap, hence the name.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Smooth Rock Tripe
Other Fungi
A broad, leathery brown lichen that hangs from shaded rock faces by a single central holdfast, curling and crisping to grey-brown when dry.
Spore print · Not applicable
Lilac-brown Bolete
Boletes
A dark, softly purple-brown bolete whose pore surface is purple-grey from the start and whose stipe is densely peppered with fine dark purplish dots.
Spore print · Reddish-brown to pinkish-brown
Dog Lichen
Other Fungi
A large foliose lichen with broad grey-brown lobes, a downy upper surface, and a white veined underside bearing long shaggy rhizines.
Spore print · Not applicable
Common Greenshield Lichen
Other Fungi
A broad, flat, apple-green rosette pressed to tree bark, with smooth rounded lobes at the edge and a wrinkled, powder-flecked centre.
Spore print · Not applicable
Black Velvet Bolete
Boletes
A dramatic bolete with a velvety black cap and stipe over a white pore surface. Cut flesh flushes pink then slowly turns grey to black.
Spore print · Pinkish-brown
Candleflame Lichen
Other Fungi
A miniature foliose lichen forming bright egg-yellow patches of tiny fringed lobes on the bark of roadside and parkland trees.
Spore print · Not applicable
Cinnabar Polypore
Polypores
An unmistakable bracket coloured vivid orange-red throughout, from the smooth upper surface to the fine pore layer beneath.
Spore print · White
Mottled Bolete
Boletes
A birch scaber stalk recognised by its patchily mottled grey-brown cap and by flesh that flushes pink in the stem and stains vivid blue-green at the base.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Rose Rust
Other Fungi
A rose-specific rust that speckles leaf undersides with orange pustules from late spring, replacing them with sooty black telia by autumn.
Spore print · Not applicable (orange then black spore masses)
Olive Shaggy Parasol
Gilled
The woodland member of the shaggy parasol group, its cap a muted olive-grey to greyish-brown with felty scales that barely stand out against the background.
Spore print · White
Spring Polypore
Polypores
A small centrally stalked polypore with a scaly tan cap edged in coarse hairs and unusually large angular white pores that run down the stem.
Spore print · White
Tawny Funnel
Gilled
A rusty orange-brown funnel that fruits in dense crowded troops and rings in woodland litter, with very crowded decurrent gills that age to the cap colour.
Spore print · Pale cream
Waxy Crust
Crusts
A translucent, waxy-gelatinous layer that develops under the bark of dead oak branches, splitting and rolling the bark back to reveal itself on bare wood.
Spore print · White
Methuselah's Beard Lichen
Other Fungi
The longest lichen in the world, hanging in pale greenish ropes several metres long with short perpendicular side branches like a bottlebrush.
Spore print · Not applicable
Weeping Polypore
Polypores
A massive lumpy bracket at the foot of oak trees, unmistakable when young for the beads of amber liquid that stand all over its buff upper surface.
Spore print · Whitish to pale yellow
Panaeolus cyanescens
Gilled
A slender pale-capped dung mottlegill of warm regions whose flesh and stipe stain blue-green where handled, with mottled black gills and a black spore print.
Spore print · Black
Star Pinkgill
Gilled
A slender grassland pinkgill named for its distinctive cross-shaped spores, with a conical silky-streaked brown cap and pink gills.
Spore print · Pink
Ugly Milkcap
Gilled
A dark olive-brown to almost black birch milkcap with a sticky cap, downy inrolled margin and cream gills that stain brown where the white latex dries.
Spore print · Cream
Devil's Urn
Cups & Discs
A dark leathery goblet-shaped cup that erupts in early spring from buried oak sticks, opening from a closed urn to a ragged-mouthed vase.
Spore print · Whitish