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”
Netted Crust
Crusts
A soft, whitish-cream crust whose fertile surface is a shallow net of low wrinkles, with free cottony margins that peel away into small flaps.
Spore print · White
Shield Pinkgill
Gilled
A spring-fruiting pinkgill of hedgerows and orchards, with a grey-brown shield-shaped cap and a strict association with rose-family shrubs and trees.
Spore print · Pink
Pixie Cup Lichen
Other Fungi
A cup lichen whose stubby grey-green podetia flare into wide goblets with granular, pebbled interiors, rising from a mat of leafy basal scales.
Spore print · Not applicable
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
Velvet Brittlegill
Gilled
A firm brittlegill with a dry velvety cap in olive-yellow or violet tones and a white stipe washed with lilac or rose. Both cap and stipe carry a fine powdery bloom.
Spore print · Pale cream
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
Rosy Brittlegill
Gilled
A hard-fleshed rose-red brittlegill of beech woods with a distinctive matt, chalky cap surface and a stipe often flushed pink at the base.
Spore print · Cream
Split Porecrust
Polypores
An extremely common white to cream resupinate polypore whose pores split and fray, becoming maze-like and finally tooth-like towards the centre.
Spore print · White
Stocking Webcap
Gilled
A firm violet-tinged webcap of beech and oak woodland whose lower stipe is sheathed in a white boot-like veil ending in a crisp upturned rim.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Livid Pinkgill
Gilled
The largest European pinkgill, with a stout ivory-grey cap, gills that turn from yellowish to salmon-pink, and a strong farinaceous odour.
Spore print · Pink
Gassy Webcap
Gilled
A stout lilac webcap of northern conifer forest with dry silky cap, ochre-saffron marbled flesh and a strong penetrating gas-like smell.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Destructive Pholiota
Gilled
A large, heavy-bodied scalycap of dead poplar wood, covered in soft white cottony veil patches with a stout woolly stipe and rusty brown spores.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Cedar Cup
Cups & Discs
A half-buried brown cup that erupts through soil beneath cedar trees in spring, splitting its rim into star-like rays around a white inner surface.
Spore print · Whitish
Bonfire Scalycap
Gilled
A small sticky-capped scalycap restricted to burnt ground and charcoal, with a tawny centre, pale yellow margin and a brown spore print.
Spore print · Brown
Velvet Bolete
Boletes
A stout pine bolete with a dry, velvety orange-ochre cap and small dark cinnamon pores. The pale yellow flesh usually flushes blue where cut.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Honey Waxcap
Gilled
A medium orange waxcap with a dry matt cap, pale orange decurrent-toothed gills and a distinct honey odour that becomes obvious as the fruit body dries.
Spore print · White
Hooded Tube Lichen
Other Fungi
A pale grey foliose lichen with puffed, hollow, tube-like lobes whose tips turn up and split open to release powdery soredia from the underside.
Spore print · Not applicable
Copper Brittlegill
Gilled
A sturdy orange-brown brittlegill of northern pine woods whose white flesh and stipe turn ash-grey and finally blackish as the fruiting body ages.
Spore print · Pale ochre
False Saffron Milkcap
Gilled
An orange spruce-associated milkcap whose carrot-coloured latex turns wine-red within half an hour and whose flesh and cap green strongly with age.
Spore print · Pale cream
Red-mouth Bolete
Boletes
An eastern North American red-pored bolete with a velvety brown cap, dark red pores that flash blue at a touch, and coarse dark red hairs clothing the stipe base.
Spore print · Olive-brown
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
Sickener
Gilled
A vivid scarlet brittlegill of wet conifer woodland and bog moss, with pure white brittle gills, a white chalk-like stipe and a cap skin that peels away almost to the centre.
Spore print · White
Pink Waxcap
Gilled
An unmistakable rose-pink to lilac waxcap whose sharply conical cap splits and flares upward like a ballerina's skirt above a white fibrous stem.
Spore print · White
Rosy Bonnet
Gilled
A stout, evenly rose-pink bonnet of beech and oak litter, larger and firmer than most of its genus, with widely spaced pale gills and a pronounced radish smell.
Spore print · White