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

Lepiota brunneoincarnata

Lepiota brunneoincarnata

Gilled

A small dapperling of grassy, disturbed ground whose pale cap is broken into concentric zones of pinkish to vinaceous-brown scales, with fibrous girdles on the lower stem and no true ring.

Spore print · White

Bulbous Honey Fungus

Bulbous Honey Fungus

Gilled

A honey fungus of deciduous woodland recognised by its distinctly swollen club-shaped stipe base, fine yellowish cap scales and fragile cobwebby yellow-fringed ring.

Spore print · White

California Agaricus

California Agaricus

Gilled

A common lawn and garden Agaricus of the Pacific coast, with a pale silky cap, a flaring patch-bearing ring and pale greyish rather than bright pink young gills.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Goldleaf Shield

Goldleaf Shield

Gilled

A small shield mushroom recognised by the contrast between its wrinkled brown cap and its bright chrome-yellow stem. It fruits on decaying hardwood twigs and buried debris.

Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink

Clustered Brittlestem

Clustered Brittlestem

Gilled

A brittlestem that grows in tight bouquets of dozens of slender stems fused at a common base, each carrying a small conical tan cap. The stems are white, hollow and snap cleanly.

Spore print · Dark purple-brown

Powdery Amanita

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

Grey Spotted Amanita

Grey Spotted Amanita

Gilled

A robust European amanita with a grey-brown cap bearing flat grey veil patches, a grooved pendulous ring, and a swollen, grey-banded stem base that is not sharply rimmed.

Spore print · White

Silky Rosegill

Silky Rosegill

Gilled

A tall pale mushroom of compost and cultivated ground with a slightly greasy grey cap, free gills that turn salmon pink, no ring, and a large white sac at the stem base.

Spore print · Pink to salmon pink

Shiitake

Shiitake

Gilled

A tough-fleshed wood-rotting agaric with a dry brown cap that cracks into a pale crazed pattern, white notched gills and a fibrous, off-centre stem with a fleeting ring zone.

Spore print · White

Spotted Toughshank

Spotted Toughshank

Gilled

A firm, long-stemmed woodland mushroom whose cream cap and crowded pale gills develop scattered rust-coloured blotches as it ages. Common in conifer plantations and on heathland litter.

Spore print · Pale pinkish cream

Scarlet Bonnet

Scarlet Bonnet

Gilled

A small bonnet with a coral-pink to scarlet conical cap that fades towards orange-pink with age, carried on a slender pale stem. It fruits among mosses, grasses and conifer needles.

Spore print · White

Pixie's Parasol

Pixie's Parasol

Gilled

A tiny Southern Hemisphere bonnet with a startling sky-blue to turquoise gelatinous cap, attached to rotting wood by a small basal disc. It is a signature fungus of cool, wet temperate rainforest.

Spore print · White

Yellowing Brittlegill

Yellowing Brittlegill

Gilled

A small, fragile brittlegill whose entire fruiting body — cap, gills, stipe and flesh — discolours a deep honey-yellow with age or handling. It is common in damp mossy conifer woodland.

Spore print · Pale cream

Variable Oysterling

Variable Oysterling

Gilled

A tiny stalkless white fungus that grows in numbers on the underside of dead twigs and stems, its felted fan-shaped cap paired with a distinctive pale pinkish-brown spore print.

Spore print · Pale pinkish-brown

Grey Shag

Gilled

A tall, fragile inkcap of manure and composted straw, its ovoid grey cap coated in loose woolly veil fibres before it splits, curls and melts away into black ink.

Spore print · Black

Agaricus crocodilinus

Agaricus crocodilinus

Gilled

A very large white meadow Agaricus whose dry cap cracks into flat plates like crocodile skin. It fruits in coastal grassland and pasture, chiefly in western North America.

Spore print · Dark brown

Girdled Knight

Girdled Knight

Gilled

A grey willow-associated knight that is unusual in its genus for having a distinct woolly white ring on the stipe. The small fibrillose-scaly cap and faintly yellowing gills complete the picture.

Spore print · White

Green Cracking Russula

Green Cracking Russula

Gilled

A firm green brittlegill whose dry cap skin breaks into a mosaic of angular patches over paler flesh, above chalk-white brittle gills and a stout ringless stipe.

Spore print · White to pale cream

Snakeskin Grisette

Snakeskin Grisette

Gilled

A large ringless Amanita whose bronze-brown cap carries ragged grey veil patches and whose stem is wrapped in snakeskin-like grey bands above a crumbling volva.

Spore print · White

Sheathed Woodtuft

Sheathed Woodtuft

Gilled

A tufted stump mushroom whose hygrophanous cap dries in two tones from the centre out, above a narrow ring and a stem clad below in coarse dark upturned scales.

Spore print · Ochre-brown to cinnamon brown

Paddy Straw Mushroom

Paddy Straw Mushroom

Gilled

A tropical Volvariella that emerges from a dark, egg-like universal veil, leaving a thick sac at the stem base beneath a silky grey-brown cap with free pink gills.

Spore print · Pink to salmon pink

Short-stemmed Russula

Short-stemmed Russula

Gilled

A large, chalk-white North American brittlegill with a deeply funnelled cap, crowded decurrent gills and a very short stout stipe, often pushing up in mounds through forest duff.

Spore print · White to pale cream

Split Fibrecap

Split Fibrecap

Gilled

A slender ochre-brown woodland fibrecap whose sharply umbonate cap splits radially into coarse straw-coloured fibres. One of the commonest and most recognisable members of a large, difficult genus.

Spore print · Dull clay-brown

Scaly Webcap

Scaly Webcap

Gilled

A strikingly shaggy webcap covered in dark brown erect scales on both cap and stem, with violet-tinged young gills and a violaceous stem apex. It partners with birch on damp acid soils.

Spore print · Rusty brown