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 “Rough-stemmed Bolete / Scaber Stalk”
Old Man of the Woods
Boletes
An unmistakable bolete covered in coarse, shaggy, blackish-grey pyramidal scales, with a woolly stipe and white flesh that turns red and then black when cut. Its spore print is nearly black.
Spore print · Blackish-brown to black
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
Spring Polypore
Polypores
A small centrally stalked polypore with a scaly tan cap edged in coarse hairs and unusually large angular white pores that run down the stem.
Spore print · White
Black-footed Polypore
Polypores
A stalked polypore with a polished chestnut-brown, funnel-shaped cap and minute white pores, recognised instantly by the inky black lower half of its stem.
Spore print · White
Dripping Bonnet
Gilled
A minute pale bonnet whose thin stem is sheathed in a thick, glassy layer of slime far wider than the stalk itself. It fruits on twigs, bramble stems and fallen plant debris.
Spore print · White
Chicken Fat Mushroom
Boletes
A slender bright yellow bolete with a slimy, red-streaked cap and cottony veil fragments on the margin. It grows only with eastern white pine, often in large troops.
Spore print · Cinnamon-brown
Elastic Saddle
Cups & Discs
A slim, graceful saddle fungus with a buff to greyish two-lobed head balanced on a thin, perfectly smooth stalk. The absence of ribs or flutes on the stem is its most useful distinguishing feature.
Spore print · White
Porcini
Boletes
The archetypal stout bolete, with a smooth brown bun-shaped cap, white pores ageing yellow-olive, and a swollen pale stipe netted with fine white reticulation. Flesh stays white and unchanging when cut.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Rooting Polypore
Polypores
A tall stalked polypore that appears to grow from bare ground, its blackish scurfy stem tapering into a long root-like extension that reaches buried hardwood below.
Spore print · White
Winter Stalkball
Puffballs
A miniature stalked puffball with a pea-sized spore sac raised on a slender woody stalk, opening by a small tubular mouth ringed with darker colour. It grows in mossy sand and old mortared walls, mainly in winter.
Spore print · Rusty brown
Field Blewit
Gilled
A stout grassland mushroom with a plain buff cap set on a striking blue-violet streaked stipe, fruiting in rings in old pasture after the first frosts.
Spore print · Pale pink
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
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
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
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
Black Witches' Butter
Jellies
A gelatinous black fungus forming rubbery cushions and blobs that fuse into wrinkled, brain-like crusts on dead hardwood branches. It swells in wet weather and shrinks to a thin black scab when dry.
Spore print · White
Bell Morel
Morels & Allies
A thimble fungus with a smooth to faintly wrinkled brown bell-shaped cap attached only at the top of a slender pale stalk. The free-hanging margin and pith-filled stalk separate it from the true morels.
Spore print · Cream to pale yellow
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
Slippery Jill
Boletes
A glutinous orange-yellow pine bolete with salmon-tinted pores and a thick, baggy, gelatinous ring that stains brown. Everything about it tends to be sticky.
Spore print · Cinnamon-brown
Half-free Morel
Morels & Allies
A small, dark-ridged morel whose conical pitted cap is joined to the stalk only around its middle, leaving the lower half hanging free like a skirt. The tall, granular white stalk is usually far longer than the cap.
Spore print · Cream to pale yellow
Painted Suillus
Boletes
A striking bolete clothed in shaggy brick-red scales over a yellow ground, with large radially arranged yellow pores. It grows only with five-needle pines.
Spore print · Olive-brown
False Chanterelle
Gilled
A soft orange funnel-capped mushroom with crowded, repeatedly forked, deeply decurrent true gills and a white spore print. Despite the chanterelle-like shape it belongs to the bolete order, not the chanterelles.
Spore print · White to cream
Beaked Earthstar
Puffballs
An elegant earthstar with the longest stalk in the genus and a slender, conspicuously furrowed beak crowning its grey, finely granular spore sac.
Spore print · Dark brown (spore mass)
Barometer Earthstar
Puffballs
A tough star-shaped gasteroid fungus whose thick rays open in damp weather and curl shut again as they dry. Despite the name it is not a true earthstar, sitting instead among the bolete relatives.
Spore print · Dark brown