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 / Warted Puffball”
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Collared Earthstar
Puffballs
The largest common earthstar, whose thick outer wall splits into pointed rays and cracks around the central ball to leave a distinctive collar or saucer. The spore sac releases dust through a single fringed apical pore.
Spore print · Dark brown (spore mass)
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
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
Sulphur Tuft
Gilled
A very common stump fungus forming crowded tufts of small sulphur-yellow caps with rusty centres, sulphur-yellow gills that age greenish then purple-brown, and a purple-brown spore print.
Spore print · Purple-brown
Candlesnuff Fungus
Other Fungi
A small upright wood-rotting fungus whose black, flattened clubs are dusted white at the tips, giving the look of a freshly snuffed candle wick. It is one of the most common and longest-lasting fungi on old hardwood stumps.
Spore print · Black
Elegant Stinkhorn
Stinkhorns
A slender, unbranched stinkhorn that rises from a white egg as a tapering orange-to-pink spike, its upper third coated in dark olive slime. Common in mulched beds and rich leaf litter across eastern North America.
Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)
Fluted Bird's Nest
Other Fungi
A tiny vase-shaped fungus, shaggy and brown outside, with a silvery-grey inner wall marked by lengthwise grooves and a clutch of disc-like 'eggs' inside. The grooving separates it from every other common bird's nest fungus.
Spore print · Not applicable (spores held in peridioles)
Haymaker's Mushroom
Gilled
A tiny, extremely common lawn fungus with a hygrophanous date-brown cap that dries pale from the centre, and mottled dark brown gills with pale edges. Its dark brown rather than black spore print separates it from true Panaeolus.
Spore print · Dark brown
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
Almond Mushroom
Gilled
A warm-climate Agaricus of compost and enriched garden soil, recognised by its brown-fibrillose cap, large pendulous ring and strong almond-like aroma.
Spore print · Dark chocolate brown
Golden Waxcap
Gilled
A clean lemon to golden-yellow waxcap with a viscid smooth cap and a slightly greasy yellow stem, one of the commonest and brightest species in autumn turf.
Spore print · White