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 “Common Puffball”
Clustered Toughshank
Gilled
Crowded tufts of slim pale mushrooms whose long stems, densely coated in fine white hairs, fuse together at a common base buried in the leaf litter.
Spore print · White
Phoenix Oyster Mushroom
Gilled
The warm-season oyster mushroom, with paler, thinner, more lung-shaped caps than the common oyster and a more clearly developed lateral stem.
Spore print · White to pale lilac-grey
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
Fragrant Chanterelle
Gilled
A vivid orange trumpet-shaped fungus that grows in dense fused clusters from a common base, with a nearly smooth underside and a powerful sweet aroma.
Spore print · Pale yellow to cream
Meadow Coral
Corals & Clubs
A yellow to apricot grassland coral whose slender branches fork repeatedly into blunt antler tips above a distinctly white, downy base. Common in mossy, unimproved turf.
Spore print · White
Violet-gray Bolete
Boletes
A handsome bolete with a deep violet-purple cap and matching stipe, white pores that age pink, and unchanging white flesh. A common oak associate in eastern North America.
Spore print · Pinkish-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
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
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
Pluteus admirabilis
Gilled
A very small, delicate golden-yellow shield mushroom with a wrinkled cap centre, a strongly lined margin and free gills that flush pink. It is common on decaying hardwood in eastern North America.
Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink
Beech Mushroom
Gilled
A tightly clustered wood mushroom with small tan caps marked by pale mottled spots and firm white stipes fused at a common base, fruiting on beech and other hardwood trunks in autumn.
Spore print · White
Short-stemmed Slippery Jack
Boletes
A dark, heavily glutinous pine bolete on a conspicuously short, stout white stalk that lacks both a ring and obvious glandular dots. Common in coastal and montane pine.
Spore print · Dull cinnamon-brown
Yellow Webcap
Gilled
A slimy-capped webcap in warm ochre-yellow, distinguished by pale bluish-violet young gills and a bluish stem apex above a glutinous, banded stem. Common with birch on damp acid soils.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Hare's Foot Inkcap
Gilled
A short-lived inkcap whose young cylindrical cap is wrapped in dense silvery-white wool like a hare's foot, then expands, splits, and curls back within hours. Common on woodchip and litter.
Spore print · Black
Lepiota subincarnata
Gilled
A small pale dapperling with a flesh-pink to tan cap finely broken into concentric scales, girdled fibres on the lower stem and no true ring, common on mulched garden ground.
Spore print · White
California Agaricus
Gilled
A common lawn and garden Agaricus of the Pacific coast, with a pale silky cap, a flaring patch-bearing ring and pale greyish rather than bright pink young gills.
Spore print · Dark chocolate brown
Clustered Brittlestem
Gilled
A brittlestem that grows in tight bouquets of dozens of slender stems fused at a common base, each carrying a small conical tan cap. The stems are white, hollow and snap cleanly.
Spore print · Dark purple-brown
Spotted Toughshank
Gilled
A firm, long-stemmed woodland mushroom whose cream cap and crowded pale gills develop scattered rust-coloured blotches as it ages. Common in conifer plantations and on heathland litter.
Spore print · Pale pinkish cream
Smooth Chanterelle
Gilled
A bright orange-yellow chanterelle whose underside is almost completely smooth, with only faint wrinkles instead of the usual forking ridges. It is a common summer fungus of eastern oak woodlands.
Spore print · Pale yellow to yellowish-cream
Yellowing Brittlegill
Gilled
A small, fragile brittlegill whose entire fruiting body — cap, gills, stipe and flesh — discolours a deep honey-yellow with age or handling. It is common in damp mossy conifer woodland.
Spore print · Pale cream
Terracotta Hedgehog
Toothed
A small orange-buff hedgehog fungus whose cap underside carries crowded brittle spines instead of gills. It is slimmer and distinctly warmer in colour than the common Wood Hedgehog.
Spore print · White to pale cream
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
White Fibrecap
Gilled
A small, silky, ivory-white fibrecap with a sharp central point and gills that age from white to dull clay-brown. Common along shaded woodland paths from midsummer onwards.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Red Cage Fungus
Stinkhorns
A stinkhorn that emerges from a white egg as a hollow, red, net-like sphere, its inner arms smeared with olive-brown spore slime. It is common in mulched garden beds and disturbed ground in warm-temperate regions.
Spore print · Not applicable