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 Laccaria”
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
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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
Potato Earthball
Puffballs
A pale, almost smooth earthball that looks like a small buried potato, with a thin rind that cracks into fine scurfy patches. The interior ripens from white to a purple-brown dust.
Spore print · Purple-brown to blackish (spore mass)
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)
Slippery Jack
Boletes
A slimy chestnut-brown bolete with small pale yellow pores and, uniquely among common Suillus species, a large membranous ring on the stipe that leaves a purple-brown band below it.
Spore print · Clay-brown to ochre
Liberty Cap
Gilled
A small, slender grassland mushroom with a sharply conical cap ending in a distinct nipple, a separable gelatinous cap skin, a wavy thin stem and a dark purple-brown spore print.
Spore print · Dark purple-brown
Ghost Fungus
Gilled
A large Australian bracket-forming mushroom with a cream cap mottled in grey, blue and purple tones, decurrent white gills and a short eccentric stipe; its gills emit a striking greenish glow at night.
Spore print · White to cream
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
Brick Cap
Gilled
A clustering wood-rotting fungus with a brick-red cap fading to buff at the rim, pale gills that age to greyish purple-brown, and a rusty-based stem with only a faint fibrous ring zone.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Blackedge Bonnet
Gilled
A sturdy lilac-brown bonnet whose pale violaceous gills carry sharply contrasting dark purple-black edges. It fruits in troops through beech and other broadleaf litter and smells strongly of radish.
Spore print · White
Leopard Earthball
Puffballs
A small ochre earthball whose surface is patterned with tiny dark scales, each ringed by a pale halo like leopard spots. It grows on damp woodland soil and has a thin tough rind over a purple-black interior.
Spore print · Purple-black to blackish brown
Common Earthball
Puffballs
A hard, squat, dirty-yellow ball with a thick rind broken into coarse polygonal warts, sitting half-buried on acid woodland soil. Cut vertically it shows a firm marbled purple-black interior even when young.
Spore print · Purple-black to blackish brown (spore mass)
Stinking Earthfan
Corals & Clubs
An upright, tough, coral-like fungus with purple- to blackish-brown branches ending in flattened, whitish, fan-shaped tips, growing from soil in conifer woodland. Its strong, penetrating odour usually announces it before it is seen.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Indigo Milkcap
Gilled
An unmistakable milkcap with a silvery indigo-blue cap and gills that bleed dark blue latex, staining green where handled. It forms mycorrhizal partnerships with oaks and pines across eastern North America, Central America and parts of East Asia.
Spore print · Cream to pale yellow
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