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 American Blusher

Netted Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A stout North American stinkhorn that hangs a short, coarse white net from beneath its pitted head. The veil reaches only partway down the thick spongy stalk.

Spore print · Olive-brown (spores in the slimy gleba)

Cinnabar Chanterelle

Gilled

A diminutive chanterelle in vivid cinnabar red to pinkish-orange, with blunt forking ridges instead of true gills. It appears in scattered troops on the soil of eastern North American oak woods.

Spore print · Pinkish-cream to pale pink

White Chanterelle

Gilled

A stout, chalk-white chanterelle of western North American conifer forests, with blunt decurrent ridges instead of gills and flesh that stains rusty orange wherever it is touched.

Spore print · White

Felt-ringed Agaricus

Gilled

A stout western North American Agaricus recognised by its thick felty ring with cottony patches, pinkish-brown fibrillose cap and yellow-staining bulbous base.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Ravenel's Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A North American stinkhorn with a nearly smooth, granular head rather than the honeycombed network of its relatives, rising from a pinkish-purple egg on sawdust and wood chips.

Spore print · Olive-brown (spores in the slimy gleba)

Two-colored Bolete

Two-colored Bolete

Boletes

A handsome eastern North American oak bolete with a rose-red dry cap, bright yellow pores that bruise slowly blue, and a red stipe with a yellow apex and no net.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Red-mouth Bolete

Red-mouth Bolete

Boletes

An eastern North American red-pored bolete with a velvety brown cap, dark red pores that flash blue at a touch, and coarse dark red hairs clothing the stipe base.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Viscid Violet Cort

Gilled

A slimy violet-capped webcap of eastern North American oak woods that develops pale yellowish spots and streaks as it ages. The viscid stem and rusty spore print confirm the genus.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Spring King Bolete

Spring King Bolete

Boletes

A western North American porcini relative that fruits in clustered groups near melting snow in mountain conifer forest, often half-buried with a soil-crusted reddish-brown cap.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Manzanita Bolete

Boletes

A large western North American scaber stalk with a deep red-brown, often sticky cap, coarse black scabers on a white stem, and flesh that greys and blackens when cut.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

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

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

Rooting Cauliflower

Other Fungi

A very large cream rosette of curled, ribbon-like lobes rising from a long tapering rooting base attached to conifer roots in western North America.

Spore print · White to pale yellow

Yellow Patches

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

Violet-gray Bolete

Boletes

A handsome bolete with a deep violet-purple cap and matching stipe, white pores that age pink, and unchanging white flesh. A common oak associate in eastern North America.

Spore print · Pinkish-brown

Bear's Head Tooth

Toothed

A large white hardwood fungus built from branching arms whose tips carry dense tufts of long, icicle-like spines. Its cascading, shaggy outline makes it one of the most recognisable fungi in eastern North American forests.

Spore print · White

Eastern Cauliflower Mushroom

Other Fungi

A large cream rosette built from broad, flat, concentrically zoned leaf-like lobes, growing at the base of oaks and other hardwoods in eastern North America.

Spore print · White to pale yellow

Pluteus admirabilis

Gilled

A very small, delicate golden-yellow shield mushroom with a wrinkled cap centre, a strongly lined margin and free gills that flush pink. It is common on decaying hardwood in eastern North America.

Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink

Hygrophorus Milkcap

Hygrophorus Milkcap

Gilled

An orange-brown North American milkcap recognised instantly by its very widely spaced, waxy-looking white gills and copious white latex that does not change colour. Its dry, velvety, wrinkled cap adds to the resemblance to a waxcap.

Spore print · White

Conifer Chicken of the Woods

Conifer Chicken of the Woods

Polypores

Vivid orange overlapping shelves with a sulphur-yellow pore surface, fruiting on conifers in western North America. Substrate is the main character separating it from its hardwood-dwelling relatives.

Spore print · White

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

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

Tumbling Puffball

Puffballs

A smooth round puffball that sheds its white outer skin to reveal a bronze to purplish-grey shell, hanging from a single tough cord until it breaks free and rolls. Common in open woods and pasture across North America.

Spore print · Olive-brown to dark brown

Elegant Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A slender, unbranched stinkhorn that rises from a white egg as a tapering orange-to-pink spike, its upper third coated in dark olive slime. Common in mulched beds and rich leaf litter across eastern North America.

Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)