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 “Black Morel”
Dung-loving Bird's Nest
Other Fungi
A small dark bird's nest fungus, shaggy when young but smooth-walled inside, distinguished by its jet-black eggs and its habit of growing on dung and heavily manured ground.
Spore print · Not applicable (spores held in peridioles)
Velvet Roll-rim
Gilled
A stout, thick-fleshed gilled fungus of conifer stumps, instantly recognised by the dense blackish-brown velvet coating its short, often off-centre stipe.
Spore print · Pale yellow-brown
Cloud Ear
Jellies
A rubbery, ear- or cup-shaped bracket on dead hardwood, greyish and finely hairy on the upper surface and smooth purplish-brown beneath, shrinking to a hard flake when dry.
Spore print · White
Helvella leucomelaena
Cups & Discs
A deep, thick-walled cup with a near-black interior and a pale exterior, sitting on a short white ribbed base that is often half-buried in sandy soil. It is a spring associate of pines.
Spore print · White
Shaggy Ink Cap
Gilled
A tall, white, cylindrical mushroom clothed in shaggy upturned scales, whose gills pass from white through pink to black before dissolving into inky liquid. The movable ring and black spore print are confirming features.
Spore print · Black
Blue Edge Pinkgill
Gilled
A small dark blue-black grassland pinkgill whose pale gills carry a finely serrated blue-black edge visible with a hand lens.
Spore print · Pink
Horsehair Parachute
Gilled
A pinhead-sized brown parachute perched on a stiff black hair, often accompanied by tangles of black horsehair-like cords running through the needle litter.
Spore print · White
Panaeolus cyanescens
Gilled
A slender pale-capped dung mottlegill of warm regions whose flesh and stipe stain blue-green where handled, with mottled black gills and a black spore print.
Spore print · Black
Old Man of the Woods
Boletes
An unmistakable bolete covered in coarse, shaggy, blackish-grey pyramidal scales, with a woolly stipe and white flesh that turns red and then black when cut. Its spore print is nearly black.
Spore print · Blackish-brown to black
Petticoat Mottlegill
Gilled
A tall, slim dung mushroom with a grey bell-shaped cap edged in white veil fragments and strongly mottled black gills.
Spore print · Black
Purple Brittlegill
Gilled
A common brittlegill with a deep purple cap darkening almost to black at the centre, cream gills and a firm white stipe that ages dirty grey.
Spore print · Pale cream
Star Rosette Lichen
Other Fungi
A small, neat grey foliose lichen forming star-like rosettes of narrow radiating lobes, usually crowded with black, often frosted apothecia.
Spore print · Not applicable
Panaeolus olivaceus
Gilled
A small, easily overlooked grassland mottlegill with an olive-tinged hygrophanous cap that often wrinkles as it dries, mottled darkening gills and a black spore print.
Spore print · Black
Maple Tar Spot
Other Fungi
An ascomycete that lacquers maple and sycamore leaves with glossy black, tar-like blotches ringed in yellow, then fruits from the fallen leaves the following spring.
Spore print · Not applicable
Devil's Matchstick Lichen
Other Fungi
Slender grey stalks rising from a granular crust on shaded rock, each topped by a glossy black spherical head like a burnt match.
Spore print · Not applicable
Dryad's Saddle
Polypores
A large fan-shaped bracket patterned with concentric brown scales like a pheasant's plumage, set on a short off-centre stem with a black base.
Spore print · White
Powdered Ruffle Lichen
Other Fungi
A large pale grey lichen with broad ruffled lobes, black eyelash-like cilia along the edges and dense white soredia rimming the wavy margins.
Spore print · Not applicable
Hazel Bolete
Boletes
A scaber stalk of hazel and hornbeam with a distinctly wrinkled, pitted olive-brown cap and white flesh that darkens through pink to near black when cut.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Willow Bracket
Polypores
A rock-hard perennial hoof on willow and other broadleaves, grey to black and deeply cracked above with a rusty brown pore surface and layered annual tubes inside.
Spore print · White
Banded Mottlegill
Gilled
A widespread mottlegill of compost heaps and manured ground, recognised by a hygrophanous reddish-brown cap that dries with a darker band around the margin and a jet-black spore print.
Spore print · Black
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
Red-capped Scaber Stalk
Boletes
A robust scaber stalk with a vivid orange-red cap whose skin overhangs the rim, and white flesh that darkens dramatically through wine-red to grey-black when cut.
Spore print · Ochre-brown
Grey Shag
Gilled
A tall, fragile inkcap of manure and composted straw, its ovoid grey cap coated in loose woolly veil fibres before it splits, curls and melts away into black ink.
Spore print · Black
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)