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 Brown Fly Agaric or European Brown Blusher

Stinking Brittlegill

Stinking Brittlegill

Gilled

A big, stout ochre-brown brittlegill with a slimy cap, a strongly grooved and warty margin and a heavy rancid oily smell, its stout stipe becoming chambered and hollow.

Spore print · Pale cream

Pluteus thomsonii

Pluteus thomsonii

Gilled

A small grey-brown shield mushroom whose cap is crossed by a conspicuous network of raised pale veins, with fine ridges continuing onto the stem. It grows on decaying hardwood.

Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink

Torn Fibrecap

Torn Fibrecap

Gilled

A small, drab, grey-brown fibrecap whose cap surface breaks up into ragged torn fibrils and scales. A pioneer of sandy tracks, heathland and young conifer plantations.

Spore print · Dull brown

Hebeloma sacchariolens

Hebeloma sacchariolens

Gilled

A pale, unassuming woodland Hebeloma recognised chiefly by its extremely strong sweet, scorched-sugar scent, clay-brown spore deposit and finely fringed gill edges.

Spore print · Clay-brown

Cloud Ear

Cloud Ear

Jellies

A rubbery, ear- or cup-shaped bracket on dead hardwood, greyish and finely hairy on the upper surface and smooth purplish-brown beneath, shrinking to a hard flake when dry.

Spore print · White

Nameko

Nameko

Gilled

A small amber-brown East Asian Pholiota famous for the thick clear gelatinous layer coating its cap, growing in clusters on dead hardwood and widely grown on inoculated logs.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Sepia Brittlegill

Sepia Brittlegill

Gilled

A dull sepia-brown brittlegill of grassy parkland and path edges, recognised by its strongly ridged cap margin and strong unpleasant odour. It is typically found under oak and lime.

Spore print · Cream

Red Cracking Bolete

Boletes

A small woodland bolete whose dull brown cap cracks into a mosaic with pinkish-red flesh showing in the fissures. Yellow pores bruise blue-green and the stipe is red-streaked.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Mustard Yellow Polypore

Mustard Yellow Polypore

Polypores

A thin tiered bracket of dead hardwood whose bright mustard-yellow velvety top contrasts sharply with a dark purplish to grey-brown pore surface of very fine pores.

Spore print · White

Hebeloma mesophaeum

Hebeloma mesophaeum

Gilled

A small two-toned Hebeloma with a dark brown cap centre, a paler margin hung with white veil fibrils, and a faint veil zone on the stipe. A pioneer of disturbed and planted ground.

Spore print · Snuff-brown

Fuzzy Foot

Fuzzy Foot

Gilled

A tiny orange-brown bell-shaped mushroom that erupts in enormous swarms across mossy conifer logs, recognised by decurrent veined gills and a tuft of tawny fuzz at the stipe base.

Spore print · White

Golden-edge Bonnet

Golden-edge Bonnet

Gilled

A small conifer-litter bonnet whose dull olive-brown cap hides gills bordered with brilliant orange edges. The orange tone is repeated on the stipe and its basal hairs.

Spore print · White

Tinder Conk

Polypores

An unmistakable hoof-shaped perennial bracket with a hard grey banded crust and a soft brown fibrous interior. It is one of the classic decay fungi of birch and beech across the northern hemisphere.

Spore print · White to pale yellowish

Cinnamon Bracket

Cinnamon Bracket

Polypores

A soft, evenly cinnamon-coloured bracket whose cap, flesh and pores are all the same warm ochre-brown, and which turns brilliant violet where a drop of alkali touches it.

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

Matsutake

Matsutake

Gilled

A dense, heavy, white-fleshed woodland mushroom overlaid with cinnamon-brown fibrous scales, carrying a thick flaring ring and a strongly aromatic odour, fruiting in arcs beneath pine.

Spore print · White

Hen of the Woods

Hen of the Woods

Polypores

A large rosette of many overlapping grey-brown spoon-shaped caps rising from a branched white stalk at the foot of oaks, with a white pore surface running down the branches.

Spore print · White

Fool's Webcap

Fool's Webcap

Gilled

A warm foxy-brown webcap of southern broadleaf woodland with thick, widely spaced saffron-rust gills and a plain yellowish stem carrying only faint cobwebby veil fibres.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Scaly Shield

Scaly Shield

Gilled

A large pale shield mushroom whose whitish cap carries brown fibrillose scales over the centre, with free gills flushing pink and a stout ringless stem. It favours sawdust and mulch.

Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink

Oakbug Milkcap

Oakbug Milkcap

Gilled

An abundant oak-associated milkcap with a dull cinnamon-brown, faintly banded cap and a heavy oily odour. Its creamy white latex does not change colour but dries brownish on the gills.

Spore print · Pale cream with pinkish tint

Scaly Earthball

Scaly Earthball

Puffballs

A tan to ochre earthball whose thin, finely scaly skin sits on an unusually long, furrowed rooting stalk. The interior ripens from white to a dusty blackish-brown spore mass.

Spore print · Blackish brown (spore mass)

Freckled Dapperling

Freckled Dapperling

Gilled

A stout dapperling of nettle beds and rich ground, its dry ochre-brown cap bristling with erect pyramidal spines that rub off at a touch and its gills forking near the stem.

Spore print · White

Almond Mushroom

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

American Parasol

American Parasol

Gilled

A stout parasol with concentric reddish-brown scales over a white cap and a spindle-shaped stem, whose flesh and surfaces stain wine-red to reddish-brown wherever they are handled. It fruits in clusters on wood chips, sawdust and old stumps rather than in undisturbed forest soil.

Spore print · White