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 “Not a mushroom/fungus”
Charcoal Loving Elf Cup
Cups & Discs
A small orange-tan stalked cup with a whitish scalloped rim that appears in troops on burnt ground the spring after a fire.
Spore print · Whitish
Big Blue Pinkgill
Gilled
A stout, deep steel-blue pinkgill of ancient calcareous grassland, with white gills turning pink and a thick blue-tinged stipe.
Spore print · Pink
Slate Bolete
Boletes
A firm, slate-grey to grey-brown scaber stalk of poplars, with a long rooting stem, dark scabers, and cut flesh that reddens then turns blue-green at the base.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Pink Earth Lichen
Other Fungi
A pale grey-white soil crust studded with short white stalks bearing rounded, pale pink heads, common on clay banks and roadside cuttings.
Spore print · Not applicable
Mousepee Pinkgill
Gilled
A small grassland pinkgill with an olive-brown cap and a startling blue-green stipe that bruises deeper green, plus a pungent mouse-like smell.
Spore print · Pink
Scarlet-stemmed Bolete
Boletes
A robust bolete with a pale felted cap, lemon pores that flash blue at a touch, and a stout stalk netted carmine-red over yellow.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Splendid Waxcap
Gilled
One of the largest scarlet waxcaps, with a deep blood-red cap, yellow-flushed decurrent gills, and a honey-like scent as it dries.
Spore print · White
Vermilion Waxcap
Gilled
A very small scarlet waxcap whose dry cap is minutely scurfy under a lens, with orange-red gills that run slightly down a smooth red stem.
Spore print · White
Yellow-juice Cup
Cups & Discs
A dull grey-brown woodland cup whose brittle flesh releases a watery juice that turns bright yellow within moments of being cut.
Spore print · White
Pale Bolete
Boletes
A softly coloured hardwood bolete with a pale buff to whitish cap and white pores that yellow with age and may stain slowly blue-green.
Spore print · Olive-brown
White Birch Bolete
Boletes
A ghostly pale scaber stalk of wet birch bogs, almost white overall with soft watery flesh and a faint greenish tinge to the cap and stem base.
Spore print · Pale snuff-brown
Crimson Cup
Cups & Discs
A brilliant scarlet cup with a whitish downy exterior, fruiting on damp buried hardwood sticks in late winter and early spring.
Spore print · White
Dappled Webcap
Gilled
A striking webcap whose pale cream cap is broken into flat coppery-red scales, with white flesh that yellows and then reddens where cut.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Goatcheese Webcap
Gilled
A lilac-blue webcap of mossy spruce forest with bluish young gills, whitish-lilac flesh and an unusually strong, far-carrying smell.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Flaming Scalycap
Gilled
A brilliant golden-yellow scalycap covered in pointed sulphur-yellow scales on both cap and stipe, fruiting on mossy conifer stumps and logs.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Bruising Webcap
Gilled
A robust webcap with a slimy streaky olive-brown cap whose violet gills and flesh flush deep purple wherever they are rubbed or cut.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Conifer Mazegill
Polypores
A tough rust-brown bracket with a bright orange growing margin and an underside of thick, radiating, ochre-brown gill-like plates.
Spore print · White
Foxy Bolete
Boletes
A firm-fleshed conifer scaber stalk with a deep fox-red cap, blackish scabers on a stout white stem, and flesh that greys strongly with blue-green tints at the base.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Hairy Bracket
Polypores
A tough, greyish-white bracket clothed in coarse, upright bristly hairs and faintly zoned, with a fine white pore surface beneath.
Spore print · White
Fleecy Milkcap
Gilled
A heavy chalk-white milkcap with a velvety fleecy cap, widely spaced cream gills that stain brown, and thick white latex from broken flesh.
Spore print · White to cream
Frosty Funnel
Gilled
A white woodland funnel whose cap carries a silky, frost-like bloom, growing in troops and arcs through deep autumn leaf litter.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Pine Bolete
Boletes
A dark red-brown member of the porcini group tied to pine and spruce, with a bumpy matte cap and a stout stipe bearing a reddish-tinged net over a brown ground.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Powdery Brittlegill
Gilled
A medium-sized brittlegill with a matt, slate-blue to grey-green cap covered in a fine frosted bloom. It is common with oak in parks, avenues and open woodland.
Spore print · Cream
Trumpet Lichen
Other Fungi
A cup lichen with slim, gradually flaring goblets dusted all over in fine flour-like soredia, rising from a mat of small grey-green basal scales.
Spore print · Not applicable