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 “Purple Cort”
Cortinarius gentilis
Gilled
A small, slender, tawny-orange webcap of mossy conifer forest, with thick widely spaced ochre gills and yellowish veil bands on a slim stem. Its dry silky cap carries a sharp umbo.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Cortinarius orellanus
Gilled
A medium-sized tawny webcap of oak and beech woodland with a dry, finely scaly convex cap, thick distant cinnamon gills and a tapering yellow-brown stipe without veil belts.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Violet Coral
Corals & Clubs
An unmistakable amethyst to magenta-violet coral fungus forming small tufts of blunt-tipped branches in old grassland and mossy woodland. Its intense colour is unmatched among temperate corals.
Spore print · White
Gooseberry Brittlegill
Gilled
A slender purple-wine brittlegill of spruce plantations, recognised by its purple-flushed stipe, pale cream gills and a distinct fruity gooseberry smell.
Spore print · Pale cream
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
Sulphur Tuft
Gilled
A very common stump fungus forming crowded tufts of small sulphur-yellow caps with rusty centres, sulphur-yellow gills that age greenish then purple-brown, and a purple-brown spore print.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Violet Fairy Cup
Cups & Discs
A small violet to purple-lilac cup fungus that colonises burnt ground, old campfire scars and charcoal-rich soil.
Spore print · White
Perigord Black Truffle
Other Fungi
A hypogeous ascomycete forming rounded black tubers covered in small pyramidal warts, with a purple-black interior finely marbled by white veins.
Spore print · Not applicable (hypogeous)
Redlead Roundhead
Gilled
An unmistakable scarlet to orange-red mushroom of woodchip mulch, with a sticky cap, whitish fibrillose stem and dark purple-brown gills.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Grey Veiled Amanita
Gilled
A conifer-loving amanita with a smooth greyish-brown cap washed with purple, a grey membranous ring, and an abrupt rounded bulb finished with a sharp rim.
Spore print · White
Red Pinwheel Marasmius
Gilled
A miniature pinwheel with a rose-pink to reddish-purple grooved cap and a shining blackish thread of a stem, scattered across damp woodland litter.
Spore print · White
Plums and Custard
Gilled
A striking conifer stump mushroom with a yellow cap densely covered in wine-purple fibrillose scales above bright egg-yellow gills.
Spore print · White
Common Stump Brittlestem
Gilled
A densely tufted stump mushroom with a date-brown cap that dries pale from the centre outward, brittle hollow white stems, and dark purple-brown spores.
Spore print · Dark purple-brown
Verdigris Agaric
Gilled
A striking woodland roundhead with a slimy verdigris blue-green cap flecked with white veil scales at the margin, a scaly ringed stem and gills that mature to purple-brown.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Charcoal Burner
Gilled
A common woodland brittlegill with a variably purple, green and slate-grey cap, unique in the genus for gills that are soft, greasy and flexible rather than brittle and shattering.
Spore print · White
Royal Bolete
Boletes
A striking butter bolete with a rose-pink to purple-red velvety cap over bright yellow pores and a yellow, finely netted stipe. Flesh yellow with little or no blueing.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Peach Leaf Curl
Other Fungi
A spring-active sac fungus that turns unfolding peach and nectarine leaves into thick, crinkled, red or purple puckered blades. A whitish bloom of spore-bearing cells later coats the distorted surface.
Spore print · Not applicable
Fragile Brittlegill
Gilled
A small, extremely fragile brittlegill with a variably purple, wine or olive-centred cap. A hand lens reveals finely serrated gill edges, a rare and diagnostic feature.
Spore print · White
Giant Club
Corals & Clubs
A conspicuous unbranched club up to 30 cm tall, shaped like a pestle with a broad wrinkled head, ochre-yellow to tan and bruising purple-brown where handled.
Spore print · White to pale ochre
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)
Wine Cap
Gilled
A large mulch-bed mushroom with a wine-red cap fading to tan, purple-grey gills, and an unmistakable thick white ring whose upper surface splits into radiating cogwheel spokes.
Spore print · Dark purple-brown to purple-black
Brown Puffball
Puffballs
A round grassland puffball whose white outer skin peels away to reveal a shining purple-black inner ball. Larger than the Grey Puffball and equally prone to breaking loose and rolling.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Ergot
Other Fungi
A grass fungus that replaces a floret with a hard, curved purple-black horn projecting from the ear, which the following spring sprouts tiny pink drumstick-shaped fruiting heads.
Spore print · Not applicable (sclerotium, not a spore print)
Pale Brittlestem
Gilled
A fragile, pale-capped clustering mushroom with a toothed veil fringe on the cap edge, gills that shift from white through grey to purple-brown, and a brittle hollow white stem.
Spore print · Purple-brown