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 Butter Bolete

Painted Suillus

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

Cat Dapperling

Cat Dapperling

Gilled

A small conifer-woodland dapperling with a starkly two-toned cap: near-black scales scattered over a white ground around a dark disc, above a slender stem with a distinct dark-edged ring.

Spore print · White

Rufous Milkcap

Rufous Milkcap

Gilled

A deep brick-red milkcap of acid pine and birch woodland, recognised by the sharp little point at the centre of a dry, matt cap. Its white latex stays white and is produced abundantly.

Spore print · Pale cream

Inocybe erubescens

Inocybe erubescens

Gilled

A stout, silky white fibrecap of chalky beech and lime woods that reddens conspicuously where handled or aged. Its spring fruiting and radially split cap are characteristic.

Spore print · Clay brown

Cinnabar Chanterelle

Cinnabar Chanterelle

Gilled

A diminutive chanterelle in vivid cinnabar red to pinkish-orange, with blunt forking ridges instead of true gills. It appears in scattered troops on the soil of eastern North American oak woods.

Spore print · Pinkish-cream to pale pink

Orange Grisette

Orange Grisette

Gilled

A tall ringless Amanita with a glowing apricot-orange cap, free white gills and a stem banded with orange-cream chevrons above a large white membranous sac.

Spore print · White

White Button Mushroom

White Button Mushroom

Gilled

The familiar rounded white Agaricus with free gills that shift from pale pink to dark brown and a soft ring on the stipe. Wild forms grow on rich, composted or manured ground rather than on wood.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Surprise Webcap

Surprise Webcap

Gilled

A drab olive-brown webcap of sandy conifer ground that hides vivid blood-red gills beneath an unremarkable cap, hence the name.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Chicken Fat Mushroom

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

Crimson Waxcap

Crimson Waxcap

Gilled

The largest of the red waxcaps, with a deep blood-crimson greasy cap, thick waxy yellow-red gills and a fibrous streaky stipe that is distinctly white at the very base.

Spore print · White

Scarlet Waxcap

Scarlet Waxcap

Gilled

A small, vividly blood-red grassland mushroom with thick, waxy, broadly attached gills and a smooth red stem, one of the classic waxcaps of ancient short turf.

Spore print · White

Mossy Maple Polypore

Mossy Maple Polypore

Polypores

A small perennial bracket that grows in overlapping clusters from wounds on living maples, instantly recognised by the carpet of green moss and algae that covers its cap and its very fine white pores.

Spore print · White

Umbrella Polypore

Umbrella Polypore

Polypores

A large branched cluster bearing dozens of small circular grey-brown caps, each with its own central stalk, growing from an underground tuber near hardwood roots.

Spore print · White

Short-stemmed Slippery Jack

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

Saffron Milkcap

Saffron Milkcap

Gilled

A pine-associated milkcap with a concentrically zoned carrot-orange funnel cap, decurrent orange gills, carrot-coloured latex and a pitted stem, the whole fungus staining dull green where damaged.

Spore print · Pale ochre to buff

The Sickener

The Sickener

Gilled

A vivid scarlet brittlegill of damp conifer woodland and sphagnum, with a shiny cap whose skin peels almost to the centre, pure white gills, a white chalky stem and a white spore print.

Spore print · White

Aspen Scaber Stalk

Aspen Scaber Stalk

Boletes

A North American scaber stalk of aspen groves, with an orange-brown cap, dark scabers even when young, and pale flesh that greys and takes on lilac tones when cut.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

Bloody Brittlegill

Bloody Brittlegill

Gilled

A firm pine-wood brittlegill with a matt blood-red cap and a stipe usually flushed the same colour. Its slightly decurrent cream gills and dry cap skin set it apart from other red species.

Spore print · Pale cream

Dappled Webcap

Dappled Webcap

Gilled

A striking webcap whose pale cream cap is broken into flat coppery-red scales, with white flesh that yellows and then reddens where cut.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Sickener

Sickener

Gilled

A vivid scarlet brittlegill of wet conifer woodland and bog moss, with pure white brittle gills, a white chalk-like stipe and a cap skin that peels away almost to the centre.

Spore print · White

Pungent Slippery Jack

Pungent Slippery Jack

Boletes

A dull grey-buff to olive-brown slippery jack whose ringless stalk is finely peppered with brown dots. It gives off an unusually strong, sweet, spicy aroma.

Spore print · Cinnamon-brown

Bloodred Webcap

Bloodred Webcap

Gilled

A small webcap coloured deep blood-red throughout, cap, gills and stipe alike, fruiting among mosses in damp spruce and pine forest.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Porcini

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

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