Mushroom Identifier

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 Conecap or Conical Brittlestem

Bruising Webcap

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

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

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

Velvet Brittlegill

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

Golden Trumpet

Golden Trumpet

Gilled

A tiny tawny-orange mushroom with decurrent veined gills and a wiry dark stem, fruiting in dense swarms on mossy conifer logs and stumps.

Spore print · Pale buff to white

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

Juniper-Hawthorn Rust

Juniper-Hawthorn Rust

Other Fungi

A two-host rust fungus that forms small brown galls with orange jelly horns on juniper in spring, then orange leaf spots with tubular outgrowths on hawthorn.

Spore print · Not applicable

Honey Waxcap

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

Copper Brittlegill

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

American Caesar's Mushroom

American Caesar's Mushroom

Gilled

A brilliant red-to-orange Amanita of eastern North American oak and pine woods, with yellow gills, a yellow-orange skirt ring and a thick white sac at the base.

Spore print · White

Yellow Stagshorn

Yellow Stagshorn

Jellies

Bright orange-yellow antler-shaped branches with a tough, gelatinous, rubbery texture, rooting into buried conifer wood by a deep tapering base.

Spore print · White to pale yellow

Firerug Inkcap

Firerug Inkcap

Gilled

An inkcap identified by the rusty-orange felted mycelial mat, the ozonium, that carpets the wood it grows from. The tawny cap is grooved and dusted with pale granular veil.

Spore print · Black

Flat-topped Coral

Flat-topped Coral

Corals & Clubs

A stout orange-ochre club with a broad, flat, wrinkled top that looks as if it has been sliced off. A conifer-forest species of western and northern regions.

Spore print · White to pale yellow

Flame Mycena

Flame Mycena

Gilled

A brilliant scarlet to flame-orange bonnet of western North American conifer duff, with orange gills edged in red and a tuft of orange fibrils at the stem base.

Spore print · White

Hairy Curtain Crust

Hairy Curtain Crust

Crusts

A thin, tough, wavy bracket with a hairy, concentrically zoned grey-buff top and a completely smooth bright orange-yellow underside with no pores, gills or teeth.

Spore print · White

Hexagonal-pored Polypore

Hexagonal-pored Polypore

Polypores

A thin, orange-tinted polypore of fallen hardwood twigs whose underside is a striking honeycomb of very large, radially stretched hexagonal pores.

Spore print · White

Button Mushroom

Button Mushroom

Gilled

A stocky white or tan Agaricus with free gills that run from pale pink through cocoa to blackish brown, a simple membranous ring, and no volva at the stem base.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Striated Earthstar

Striated Earthstar

Puffballs

An earthstar recognised by the flaring collar or skirt that spreads beneath its grey spore sac, combined with a sharply grooved, beak-like mouth on a short stalk.

Spore print · Dark brown (spore mass)

Spectacular Rustgill

Spectacular Rustgill

Gilled

A big, showy orange-tawny agaric that fruits in massive clusters at the base of broadleaf stumps, with a fibrillose scaly cap, ringed stipe and rusty orange spore print.

Spore print · Rusty orange-brown

Pear Trellis Rust

Pear Trellis Rust

Other Fungi

A two-host rust that paints pear leaves with vivid orange spots backed by tiny lattice-like tubes, while producing gelatinous orange horns on juniper stems in spring.

Spore print · Not applicable (orange spore masses)

False Coral

False Coral

Corals & Clubs

A pale, tough, coral-like fungus whose flattened branches fuse sideways into fan-shaped or rosette-like masses on woodland soil. It looks like a coral fungus but belongs to the jelly fungus lineage.

Spore print · White

Cedar-Apple Rust

Other Fungi

A rust fungus that alternates between junipers, where it forms brown galls that push out orange gelatinous horns in spring rain, and apples, where it makes bright orange leaf spots.

Spore print · Not applicable

Golden Scruffy Collybia

Golden Scruffy Collybia

Gilled

A small, brilliant orange-yellow woodland mushroom whose cap is studded with pointed, granular scales, contrasting with widely spaced white gills on a shaggy yellow stalk.

Spore print · White

Birch Brittlegill

Birch Brittlegill

Gilled

A small, delicate brittlegill with a pale rosy or almost white cap, found only with birch on wet acid ground. Its thin flesh and grooved margin make it one of the frailest of the genus.

Spore print · White