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 Tumor of a plant (Gall)

Parasola auricoma

Parasola auricoma

Gilled

A delicate pleated inkcap of mulch and path edges whose young cap carries scattered stiff brown hairs, visible with a hand lens, that give the species its golden-haired name.

Spore print · Black

Alder Scalycap

Alder Scalycap

Gilled

A tufted lemon-yellow Pholiota of wet woodland that grows on alder and birch stumps, with a smooth slightly sticky cap, sweetish scent and clay-brown spore print.

Spore print · Clay-brown to rust-brown

Grey Shag

Gilled

A tall, fragile inkcap of manure and composted straw, its ovoid grey cap coated in loose woolly veil fibres before it splits, curls and melts away into black ink.

Spore print · Black

White Dunce Cap

White Dunce Cap

Gilled

An extremely fragile white to cream conical mushroom of lawns that appears overnight and often collapses by midday, with rusty ochre spores.

Spore print · Rusty ochre-brown

Grass-green Russula

Gilled

An evenly grass-green brittlegill of birch woods, distinguished by its smooth unpatched cap, cream-ochre spore print and rusty spotting on ageing gills.

Spore print · Cream to pale ochre

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

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

Star Rosette Lichen

Other Fungi

A small, neat grey foliose lichen forming star-like rosettes of narrow radiating lobes, usually crowded with black, often frosted apothecia.

Spore print · Not applicable

Orange Pinwheel

Orange Pinwheel

Gilled

A vivid rusty-orange miniature with a pleated, umbrella-like cap held on a wiry blackish thread of a stem, scattered through damp hardwood litter.

Spore print · White

Rosy Bonnet

Rosy Bonnet

Gilled

A stout, evenly rose-pink bonnet of beech and oak litter, larger and firmer than most of its genus, with widely spaced pale gills and a pronounced radish smell.

Spore print · White

Red Pinwheel Marasmius

Red Pinwheel Marasmius

Gilled

A miniature pinwheel with a rose-pink to reddish-purple grooved cap and a shining blackish thread of a stem, scattered across damp woodland litter.

Spore print · White

Willow Shield

Willow Shield

Gilled

A slender grey to greenish-grey shield mushroom of damp riverside woods, with free gills that turn salmon-pink, a pale stem often bluing at the base, and a pink spore print.

Spore print · Pink

Spindleshank

Spindleshank

Gilled

Tough, clustered mushrooms at the foot of oaks, with rust-spotted gills and a distinctive grooved, spindle-shaped stem that tapers into a twisted root.

Spore print · White

Pink Crown

Pink Crown

Cups & Discs

A large hollow ball that develops underground then bursts through the soil and splits into a crown of rays, revealing a lilac to violet inner surface.

Spore print · White

Pearly Parachute

Pearly Parachute

Gilled

A pale, silky-capped litter mushroom of beech woods, faintly washed with lilac-grey and growing in loose tufts from a white woolly base in the leaf mould.

Spore print · White

Conifer Tuft

Conifer Tuft

Gilled

A tightly clustered woodland fungus of conifer stumps, recognised by its tan-ochre cap and gills that shift from whitish to a distinctive smoky grey.

Spore print · Purple-brown

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

Greenfoot Fibrecap

Greenfoot Fibrecap

Gilled

A dark, densely shaggy fibrecap whose stipe base is stained a vivid blue-green. A distinctive species of damp mossy conifer woodland and boggy ground.

Spore print · Dull brown

Cobalt Crust

Cobalt Crust

Crusts

An unmistakable resupinate fungus forming intense indigo to cobalt-blue velvety patches on the underside of fallen hardwood branches.

Spore print · White

Lemon Disco

Lemon Disco

Cups & Discs

Swarms of minute lemon-yellow discs scattered in their hundreds across damp barkless hardwood, one of the brightest sights on the autumn woodland floor.

Spore print · White

Greencracked Brittlegill

Greencracked Brittlegill

Gilled

An unmistakable brittlegill whose firm green cap breaks up into a mosaic of angular verrucose patches, paired with white brittle gills and a plain white stipe.

Spore print · White

Lake's Bolete

Lake's Bolete

Boletes

A scaly reddish-brown bolete of Douglas-fir woods with large radial yellow pores and a ring zone. Flesh at the very stalk base often flushes blue-green.

Spore print · Olive-brown to cinnamon

Hazel Bolete

Hazel Bolete

Boletes

A scaber stalk of hazel and hornbeam with a distinctly wrinkled, pitted olive-brown cap and white flesh that darkens through pink to near black when cut.

Spore print · Ochre-brown