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 “Porcelain Fungus”
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
Pink-tipped Coral
Corals & Clubs
A stout, cauliflower-shaped coral fungus with a thick white trunk and crowded branches whose tips are washed pink to wine-red. It grows from soil in broadleaf woodland and is one of the bulkiest of the branched fungi.
Spore print · Pale ochre-yellow
Peeling Oysterling
Gilled
A stalkless buff to tan bracket-like gilled fungus on dead hardwood, unique for its gelatinous cap skin that stretches like rubber when peeled back from the margin.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Corn Smut
Other Fungi
A smut fungus that turns maize kernels, tassels and leaves into swollen silvery-grey galls which rupture to release masses of sooty black spores. It occurs wherever maize is grown.
Spore print · Not applicable
Egghead Mottlegill
Gilled
A pale, egg-shaped dung fungus with mottled grey-black gills and, unusually for the genus, a distinct membranous ring on a long slender stipe. The cap is often shiny and wrinkled as it dries.
Spore print · Black
Violet Coral
Corals & Clubs
An unmistakable amethyst to magenta-violet coral fungus forming small tufts of blunt-tipped branches in old grassland and mossy woodland. Its intense colour is unmatched among temperate corals.
Spore print · White
Upright Coral
Corals & Clubs
A tan to ochre coral fungus whose narrow branches rise almost perfectly parallel and vertical from a wood-anchored base. White cords at the base and a brownish bruising reaction are typical.
Spore print · Pale yellow to ochre
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
Chanterelle
Gilled
A solid egg-yellow funnel-shaped fungus whose underside carries blunt, forking, decurrent ridges rather than true gills. The flesh is white and fibrous and the odour is faintly of apricots.
Spore print · Pale cream to yellowish
Chicken of the Woods
Polypores
A vivid orange and sulphur-yellow bracket fungus forming large overlapping tiers on tree trunks, with a bright yellow pore surface and thick, soft flesh that fades to chalky white with age.
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
Leafy Brain
Jellies
A brown gelatinous fungus forming rosettes of thin, wavy, leaf-like lobes that look like a clump of seaweed stranded on a conifer stump.
Spore print · White
Apple Scab
Other Fungi
A leaf- and fruit-inhabiting sac fungus of apples and crabapples that produces sooty olive-green spots with fuzzy, feathered margins. It overwinters in fallen leaves, where its minute flask-shaped fruiting bodies form.
Spore print · Not applicable
Tan Ear
Cups & Discs
A dull leather-tan ear fungus that opens into a broader, shallower split cup than its relatives, fruiting on humus in deciduous and mixed woodland.
Spore print · White
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
Fragrant Chanterelle
Gilled
A vivid orange trumpet-shaped fungus that grows in dense fused clusters from a common base, with a nearly smooth underside and a powerful sweet aroma.
Spore print · Pale yellow to cream
Bear's Head Tooth
Toothed
A large white hardwood fungus built from branching arms whose tips carry dense tufts of long, icicle-like spines. Its cascading, shaggy outline makes it one of the most recognisable fungi in eastern North American forests.
Spore print · White
Dead Man's Fingers
Other Fungi
Swollen black clubs standing upright from decaying hardwood stumps like blackened fingers, tough and carbon-crusted outside with startling white flesh inside. It is a wood-rotting flask fungus present year-round.
Spore print · Black
Juniper-Hawthorn Rust
Other Fungi
A two-host rust fungus that forms small brown galls with orange jelly horns on juniper in spring, then orange leaf spots with tubular outgrowths on hawthorn.
Spore print · Not applicable
Craterellus lutescens
Gilled
A slender funnel-shaped fungus with a scurfy brown cap, a bright orange-yellow hollow stalk and an almost smooth orange underside rather than distinct ridges.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Golden Spindles
Corals & Clubs
Vivid egg-yellow spindles that fuse at the base into tight bundles, each club tapering to a fine point that browns with age. A signature fungus of old, unfertilised turf.
Spore print · White
Common Bunt
Other Fungi
A smut fungus that hollows out wheat kernels and refills them with a mass of dark brown spores, producing fragile grey bunt balls with a distinctive fishy odour.
Spore print · Not applicable (dark brown spore mass)
Bolete Eater
Other Fungi
A parasitic fungus that engulfs boletes in a felty white coat which ripens to bright golden yellow, distorting the host until its pores and stipe are barely recognisable.
Spore print · Not applicable; golden-yellow powdery spore mass
Plum Pockets
Other Fungi
A sac fungus that transforms developing plums and sloes into elongated, hollow, stoneless bladders coated in a grey-white bloom. The distorted fruits hang conspicuously among normal ones.
Spore print · Not applicable