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 Red-capped Scaber Stalk

Bloody Milkcap

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

Terracotta Hedgehog

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

Yellow-gilled Gymnopilus

Yellow-gilled Gymnopilus

Gilled

A colourful rustgill with a purplish-red, fibrillose-scaly cap and brilliant yellow gills that mature to rust, commonly clustered on wood chip beds.

Spore print · Rusty orange-brown

Mauve Parachute

Gilled

A jewel-like tropical parachute with a deeply pleated purple-red cap, pale distant gills and a shining black hair of a stem, scattered on fallen twigs and leaves.

Spore print · White

Shield Dapperling

Gilled

A slender woodland dapperling with an ochre-brown scaly cap, a shaggy fringed margin, and a stem sheathed below the vague ring in loose woolly cotton like a rolled-down sock.

Spore print · White

Russell's Bolete

Russell's Bolete

Boletes

A tall, elegant bolete of eastern oak woods, instantly known by its extraordinarily long stipe carved with deep, ragged, shaggy ridges and by its cracked olive-brown cap.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Weeping Bolete

Weeping Bolete

Boletes

A slippery cinnamon-brown bolete of pine woods whose pale yellow pores exude milky droplets in humid weather, giving it its name. The ringless stalk is dusted with fine brown granular dots.

Spore print · Cinnamon-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

Redlead Roundhead

Redlead Roundhead

Gilled

An unmistakable scarlet to orange-red mushroom of woodchip mulch, with a sticky cap, whitish fibrillose stem and dark purple-brown gills.

Spore print · Purple-brown

Cinnabar Polypore

Cinnabar Polypore

Polypores

An unmistakable bracket coloured vivid orange-red throughout, from the smooth upper surface to the fine pore layer beneath.

Spore print · White

Plums and Custard

Gilled

A striking conifer stump mushroom with a yellow cap densely covered in wine-purple fibrillose scales above bright egg-yellow gills.

Spore print · White

Lactarius scrobiculatus

Lactarius scrobiculatus

Gilled

A large yellow, zoned milkcap with a shaggy bearded cap margin and a stipe pitted with distinct coloured hollows (scrobicules). Its white latex turns sulphur-yellow within seconds of exposure.

Spore print · Pale cream to pale yellow

Blushing Wood Mushroom

Blushing Wood Mushroom

Gilled

A brown-scaled woodland Agaricus of conifer litter whose white flesh blushes vivid red within moments of being cut.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Sandy Stiltball

Sandy Stiltball

Puffballs

A striking fungus with a tall, woody, shaggily scaled stalk rising from a buried sac-like volva and topped by a flattened disc of rusty-brown spore powder. It grows on dry, sandy, nutrient-poor soil.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Bleeding Tooth Fungus

Bleeding Tooth Fungus

Toothed

A knobbly, cream-white tooth fungus whose growing surface exudes vivid blood-red droplets, fruiting in conifer duff and often fusing with its neighbours into irregular crusted masses.

Spore print · Brown

Pine Conk

Pine Conk

Polypores

A woody, perennial bracket that forms hard hoof-shaped conks on the trunks of standing conifers, recognised by its cracked brown upper crust and irregular, maze-like yellow-brown pores.

Spore print · Yellowish brown

Charcoal Loving Elf Cup

Charcoal Loving Elf Cup

Cups & Discs

A small orange-tan stalked cup with a whitish scalloped rim that appears in troops on burnt ground the spring after a fire.

Spore print · Whitish

Devil's Bolete

Devil's Bolete

Boletes

A massive, pale-capped bolete of warm limestone woodland, with blood-red pores, a squat bulbous stipe covered in a fine red net, and flesh that blues only slowly.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Vinegar Cup

Vinegar Cup

Cups & Discs

A deep brown goblet-shaped cup whose pale, branching ribs run up from a stout base far onto the outside of the bowl. It fruits in spring on lime-rich soil at woodland edges and along paths.

Spore print · White

Felt Saddle

Felt Saddle

Cups & Discs

A grey, shallow cup raised on an unusually long slender stalk, with fine felt covering both the outer surface and the stem. Its unribbed, downy stalk separates it at a glance from the fluted saddles.

Spore print · White

Early Morel

Early Morel

Morels & Allies

A thimble-capped spring ascomycete whose longitudinally wrinkled, tan to yellow-brown cap hangs free from the very top of the stalk like a bell. The stalk is stuffed with loose cottony pith rather than being hollow.

Spore print · Pale yellow to cream

Splendid Waxcap

Splendid Waxcap

Gilled

One of the largest scarlet waxcaps, with a deep blood-red cap, yellow-flushed decurrent gills, and a honey-like scent as it dries.

Spore print · White

Jelly Baby

Jelly Baby

Jellies

A small rubbery club fungus with a slimy ochre-yellow head perched on a paler stalk, usually appearing in troops on damp woodland soil. Its gelatinous texture and irregular, inrolled cap margin make it unlike any true gilled mushroom.

Spore print · Whitish (rarely taken)

Scarlet-stemmed Bolete

Scarlet-stemmed Bolete

Boletes

A robust bolete with a pale felted cap, lemon pores that flash blue at a touch, and a stout stalk netted carmine-red over yellow.

Spore print · Olive-brown