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 Scaber Stalk

Snowy Waxcap

Snowy Waxcap

Gilled

A small, slender, entirely white waxcap with thick decurrent gills and a tapering stem, often the last waxcap still fruiting in the turf after the first frosts.

Spore print · White

Clustered Bonnet

Clustered Bonnet

Gilled

A small bell-capped bonnet that grows in dense tufts on oak and sweet chestnut stumps, recognised by the finely toothed, scalloped cap edge and a slender stem that turns golden then rusty orange-brown below.

Spore print · White

Blackening Waxcap

Blackening Waxcap

Gilled

A sharply conical orange to scarlet waxcap that turns inky black wherever it is bruised or as it ages, ending as a wholly charred-looking fruit body.

Spore print · White

Nitrous Waxcap

Nitrous Waxcap

Gilled

A drab grey-brown waxcap identified less by colour than by its sharp nitrous, bleach-like smell and fibrous, matt cap.

Spore print · White

Peppery Milkcap

Peppery Milkcap

Gilled

A chalk-white broadleaf milkcap with extremely crowded, narrow, forking decurrent gills and abundant white latex that floods any cut surface.

Spore print · White

Honey Waxcap

Honey Waxcap

Gilled

A medium orange waxcap with a dry matt cap, pale orange decurrent-toothed gills and a distinct honey odour that becomes obvious as the fruit body dries.

Spore print · White

Fleecy Milkcap

Fleecy Milkcap

Gilled

A heavy chalk-white milkcap with a velvety fleecy cap, widely spaced cream gills that stain brown, and thick white latex from broken flesh.

Spore print · White to cream

Butter Waxcap

Butter Waxcap

Gilled

A small buttery-yellow waxcap with a slightly greasy cap, a dry stem and pale yellow gills that run a little way down the stipe.

Spore print · White

Orange Mycena

Orange Mycena

Gilled

A vividly orange, sticky-capped bonnet that grows in dense tufts on hardwood logs and is instantly recognised by the bright orange edges of its otherwise pale gills.

Spore print · White

Half-free Morel

Half-free Morel

Morels & Allies

A small, dark-ridged morel whose conical pitted cap is joined to the stalk only around its middle, leaving the lower half hanging free like a skirt. The tall, granular white stalk is usually far longer than the cap.

Spore print · Cream to pale yellow

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

Iodine Bolete

Iodine Bolete

Boletes

A pale, dry-capped bolete of warm oak woodland with lemon-yellow pores that do not blue and a stipe base whose flesh carries a distinctive iodoform-like odour.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Scaly Inkcap

Scaly Inkcap

Gilled

A clustered inkcap whose buff-brown bell-shaped cap is decorated with felty whitish veil patches. It fruits in tufts on hardwood stumps and buried wood.

Spore print · Black

Persistent Waxcap

Persistent Waxcap

Gilled

A bright yellow to apricot-orange waxcap with a sharply pointed cap that keeps its colour instead of blackening with age.

Spore print · White

Fishy Milkcap

Fishy Milkcap

Gilled

A firm, apricot-orange milkcap that bleeds copious white latex and stains every damaged surface rich brown. Its strong shellfish-like odour, developing with age, is the quickest field character.

Spore print · White

Cedarwood Waxcap

Cedarwood Waxcap

Gilled

A small pure-white grassland waxcap with broadly decurrent gills and a distinctive scent of cedar pencil shavings.

Spore print · White

Pale Brittlestem

Pale Brittlestem

Gilled

A fragile, pale-capped clustering mushroom with a toothed veil fringe on the cap edge, gills that shift from white through grey to purple-brown, and a brittle hollow white stem.

Spore print · Purple-brown

Viscid Violet Cort

Viscid Violet Cort

Gilled

A slimy violet-capped webcap of eastern North American oak woods that develops pale yellowish spots and streaks as it ages. The viscid stem and rusty spore print confirm the genus.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Crab Brittlegill

Crab Brittlegill

Gilled

A robust brittlegill with a dark wine-red cap, ochre gills and a stipe flushed pink that browns wherever it is handled, accompanied by a strong smell of shellfish.

Spore print · Ochre

Rosy Brittlegill

Rosy Brittlegill

Gilled

A hard-fleshed rose-red brittlegill of beech woods with a distinctive matt, chalky cap surface and a stipe often flushed pink at the base.

Spore print · Cream

Clouded Funnel

Clouded Funnel

Gilled

A stout, pale grey funnel-capped woodland mushroom that troops in long lines and rings through autumn leaf litter, recognised by its bloomed cloudy cap and crowded creamy gills.

Spore print · Pale cream

British Soldiers Lichen

British Soldiers Lichen

Other Fungi

A small Cladonia whose grey-green stalks are capped with vivid scarlet fruiting knobs, growing in colonies on rotting stumps, fence rails and acid soil.

Spore print · Not applicable

Zeller's Bolete

Zeller's Bolete

Boletes

A striking western North American bolete with a sooty, velvet-textured dark cap that contrasts sharply against bright yellow pores and a red-streaked stem.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Goblet Waxcap

Goblet Waxcap

Gilled

A small scarlet waxcap shaped like a tiny chanterelle, with a scurfy funnel-shaped cap, deeply decurrent yellow gills and a long slender red stem.

Spore print · White