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 Orange Mosscap

Rose Rust

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)

Wrinkled Crust

Wrinkled Crust

Crusts

A waxy salmon to purplish-orange crust whose centre is thrown into radiating folds and warts, with a paler smooth fringe at the edge.

Spore print · White

Golden Coral

Golden Coral

Corals & Clubs

A large, richly golden branched coral rising from a short whitish trunk, fruiting from soil in broadleaf woodland. Branch and tip colour is nearly uniform, without pink or salmon tones.

Spore print · Pale ochre-yellow

Jack O'Lantern Mushroom

Jack O'Lantern Mushroom

Gilled

A vivid orange gilled mushroom that grows in dense clumps on hardwood stumps and roots, with sharp, deep, decurrent true gills whose edges can glow faintly in darkness.

Spore print · Cream to pale yellow

Tawny Grisette

Tawny Grisette

Gilled

A slim, ringless, foxy orange-brown Amanita of acid woodland and heath, with free white gills and a tall white sac at the base stained rusty brown.

Spore print · White

Golden Ear

Golden Ear

Jellies

A deep golden-orange jelly fungus forming firm, ear- or petal-shaped lobes on hardwood, always accompanied by the hairy brackets of Stereum hirsutum, the host it parasitises.

Spore print · White

Golden-edge Bonnet

Golden-edge Bonnet

Gilled

A small conifer-litter bonnet whose dull olive-brown cap hides gills bordered with brilliant orange edges. The orange tone is repeated on the stipe and its basal hairs.

Spore print · White

Common Jellyspot

Common Jellyspot

Jellies

Minute orange-yellow jelly blobs scattered in numbers over damp dead wood and old fence posts, among the most frequently encountered of all small fungi.

Spore print · Whitish to pale yellow

Coffee Leaf Rust

Other Fungi

A tropical rust that dusts the undersides of coffee leaves with vivid orange-yellow powder beneath pale translucent spots on the upper surface.

Spore print · Not applicable (bright orange spore masses)

Frost's Amanita

Frost's Amanita

Gilled

A small, brightly coloured eastern amanita with an orange cap, a strongly grooved margin, pale yellow warts, and a rounded bulb finished with a distinct collar-like rim.

Spore print · White

False Saffron Milkcap

False Saffron Milkcap

Gilled

An orange spruce-associated milkcap whose carrot-coloured latex turns wine-red within half an hour and whose flesh and cap green strongly with age.

Spore print · Pale cream

Saffron Milkcap

Saffron Milkcap

Gilled

A pine-associated milkcap with a concentrically zoned carrot-orange funnel cap, decurrent orange gills, carrot-coloured latex and a pitted stem, the whole fungus staining dull green where damaged.

Spore print · Pale ochre to buff

Elegant Sunburst Lichen

Elegant Sunburst Lichen

Other Fungi

A tightly appressed, brilliant orange rock lichen forming neat rosettes of narrow radiating lobes, common on bird-perch boulders in alpine and arctic country.

Spore print · Not applicable

Darwin's Fungus

Darwin's Fungus

Cups & Discs

A globe-shaped orange ascomycete that erupts in clusters from woody galls on southern beech trees in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, its surface dimpled with honeycomb-like cups.

Spore print · White

Scarlet Caterpillarclub

Scarlet Caterpillarclub

Other Fungi

A small bright orange club fungus that grows out of the buried pupa or larva of a moth. Digging carefully beneath the club reveals the orange-stained insect from which it arises.

Spore print · White

Crepidotus crocophyllus

Crepidotus crocophyllus

Gilled

A stalkless fan-shaped wood fungus with a whitish cap flecked with tawny-brown scales and distinctive saffron to orange-yellow gills that age brown. It fruits on decaying hardwood.

Spore print · Brown to cinnamon-brown

Flame Mycena

Flame Mycena

Gilled

A brilliant scarlet to flame-orange bonnet of western North American conifer duff, with orange gills edged in red and a tuft of orange fibrils at the stem base.

Spore print · White

Juniper-Hawthorn Rust

Juniper-Hawthorn Rust

Other Fungi

A two-host rust fungus that forms small brown galls with orange jelly horns on juniper in spring, then orange leaf spots with tubular outgrowths on hawthorn.

Spore print · Not applicable

Honey Waxcap

Honey Waxcap

Gilled

A medium orange waxcap with a dry matt cap, pale orange decurrent-toothed gills and a distinct honey odour that becomes obvious as the fruit body dries.

Spore print · White

Spectacular Rustgill

Spectacular Rustgill

Gilled

A big, showy orange-tawny agaric that fruits in massive clusters at the base of broadleaf stumps, with a fibrillose scaly cap, ringed stipe and rusty orange spore print.

Spore print · Rusty orange-brown

American Caesar's Mushroom

American Caesar's Mushroom

Gilled

A brilliant red-to-orange Amanita of eastern North American oak and pine woods, with yellow gills, a yellow-orange skirt ring and a thick white sac at the base.

Spore print · White

Saffron Milk Cap

Saffron Milk Cap

Gilled

A stout orange milkcap with concentric bands on the cap, decurrent orange gills, and carrot-orange latex that slowly turns the flesh green. It grows only with pines.

Spore print · Pale cream to buff

Pear Trellis Rust

Pear Trellis Rust

Other Fungi

A two-host rust that paints pear leaves with vivid orange spots backed by tiny lattice-like tubes, while producing gelatinous orange horns on juniper stems in spring.

Spore print · Not applicable (orange spore masses)

Cedar-Apple Rust

Other Fungi

A rust fungus that alternates between junipers, where it forms brown galls that push out orange gelatinous horns in spring rain, and apples, where it makes bright orange leaf spots.

Spore print · Not applicable