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”
Cinnamon Bracket
Polypores
A soft, evenly cinnamon-coloured bracket whose cap, flesh and pores are all the same warm ochre-brown, and which turns brilliant violet where a drop of alkali touches it.
Spore print · White
Beech Jellydisc
Jellies
Translucent, gelatinous pinkish-buff discs crowded together on fallen beech wood, often forming knobbly cushions. The soft rubbery texture and pale lilac tint distinguish it from darker jelly fungi.
Spore print · White
Oakbug Milkcap
Gilled
An abundant oak-associated milkcap with a dull cinnamon-brown, faintly banded cap and a heavy oily odour. Its creamy white latex does not change colour but dries brownish on the gills.
Spore print · Pale cream with pinkish tint
Woolly Milkcap
Gilled
A pink, concentrically banded birch milkcap with a heavily inrolled, shaggily woolly cap margin and copious white latex that does not change colour.
Spore print · Cream
Pale Milkcap
Gilled
A plain, pale pinkish-buff milkcap of beech woods with a smooth, slightly greasy cap, crowded pale gills and copious white latex that does not change colour. Its very lack of markings is its most useful field character.
Spore print · Pale cream
Ugly Milkcap
Gilled
A dark olive-brown to almost black birch milkcap with a sticky cap, downy inrolled margin and cream gills that stain brown where the white latex dries.
Spore print · Cream
Mild Milkcap
Gilled
A small, abundant reddish-brown milkcap of beech litter with a dry unzoned cap, crowded pale gills and copious white latex that dries whey-like on the gills. It often fruits in large troops beneath mature beech.
Spore print · Cream to pale buff
Fishy Milkcap
Gilled
A firm, apricot-orange milkcap that bleeds copious white latex and stains every damaged surface rich brown. Its strong shellfish-like odour, developing with age, is the quickest field character.
Spore print · White
Corrugated-cap Milkcap
Gilled
A large, dark reddish-brown milkcap with a velvety, deeply corrugated cap surface and cinnamon-tinted gills that stain brown. It bleeds abundant white latex from any damaged tissue.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Deceiving Milkcap
Gilled
A small, pale pinkish-tan milkcap whose white latex turns bright yellow within seconds of exposure. A faint geranium-like odour and a preference for hornbeam and hazel help confirm it.
Spore print · Pale cream
Grey Milkcap
Gilled
A thin-fleshed lilac-grey milkcap of damp birch woods whose white latex dries grey-green on the gills. The greasy, smooth cap and grey-staining pale gills are its key marks.
Spore print · Pale cream
Birch Milkcap
Gilled
A small tawny orange-brown birch associate with a matt, slightly wrinkled cap and a small pointed umbo. Its scanty white latex slowly turns yellow when smeared on a white tissue.
Spore print · Pale cream
Bearded Milkcap
Gilled
A small pale milkcap of sandy birch ground, recognised by its almost unzoned whitish-pink cap, finely downy inrolled margin and unchanging white latex.
Spore print · Cream
Bloody Milkcap
Gilled
A pine-associated milkcap of southern limestone woodland whose flesh releases dark blood-red latex the instant it is cut, with no orange phase at all.
Spore print · Pale cream to buff
Velvet Milkcap
Gilled
A striking dark chocolate-brown milkcap with a dry velvety, wrinkled cap and startlingly white gills, whose white latex stains the flesh salmon-pink. It grows with spruce and fir in mossy northern and montane conifer forest.
Spore print · Pale yellow to ochre
Northern Milkcap
Gilled
A large, greasy grey-violet milkcap of northern birch and spruce forests, with white latex that dries greyish or greenish on the pale gills. It is one of the most abundant Lactarius species in Fennoscandia and the boreal belt.
Spore print · Pale cream to pale yellow
Sooty Milkcap
Gilled
A dry, matt, sooty grey-brown milkcap of broadleaved woodland whose white latex turns the pale flesh and gills salmon-pink within moments of cutting. That colour reaction is its defining field character.
Spore print · Pale ochre with pinkish tinge
Yellowdrop Milkcap
Gilled
A pale pinkish-buff oak associate whose white latex turns brilliant sulphur yellow within seconds of exposure. Faint concentric cap zoning and a whitish hollow stipe complete the picture.
Spore print · Pale cream
Peppery Milkcap
Gilled
A chalk-white broadleaf milkcap with extremely crowded, narrow, forking decurrent gills and abundant white latex that floods any cut surface.
Spore print · White
Rufous Milkcap
Gilled
A deep brick-red milkcap of acid pine and birch woodland, recognised by the sharp little point at the centre of a dry, matt cap. Its white latex stays white and is produced abundantly.
Spore print · Pale cream
Liver Milkcap
Gilled
A small dark liver-brown milkcap of pine litter on acid soils, whose white latex turns clear yellow when blotted onto a white cloth. It fruits late in the season, often in dense troops among needles and moss.
Spore print · Pale cream with pinkish tinge
Fiery Milkcap
Gilled
A grey-buff milkcap with faint watery zoning and unusually well-spaced ochre-yellow gills, found almost exclusively under hazel. Its white latex dries greyish and its gill spacing sets it apart from other grey milkcaps.
Spore print · Pale cream to pale yellow
Fenugreek Milkcap
Gilled
A large, dry, felty fawn milkcap of bogs and wet birch woods, with scanty watery latex and a powerful aromatic odour of fenugreek that intensifies as specimens dry. It is a reliable indicator of wet, acid, peaty ground.
Spore print · Pale cream
Hygrophorus Milkcap
Gilled
An orange-brown North American milkcap recognised instantly by its very widely spaced, waxy-looking white gills and copious white latex that does not change colour. Its dry, velvety, wrinkled cap adds to the resemblance to a waxcap.
Spore print · White