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 Panther Cap

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

Yellow Swamp Brittlegill

Yellow Swamp Brittlegill

Gilled

A striking pure chrome-yellow brittlegill of boggy birch woods, identified by its bright unfaded cap and by flesh that turns grey and eventually black where cut or bruised.

Spore print · Pale ochre

Snowy Inkcap

Snowy Inkcap

Gilled

A small, brilliantly white inkcap coated in a floury veil, growing on cow and horse dung in pasture. Its pure white cap darkens and dissolves to black within a day.

Spore print · Black

Violet-gray Bolete

Violet-gray Bolete

Boletes

A handsome bolete with a deep violet-purple cap and matching stipe, white pores that age pink, and unchanging white flesh. A common oak associate in eastern North America.

Spore print · Pinkish-brown

Common Rustgill

Common Rustgill

Gilled

An abundant orange-tawny wood-rotter of conifer plantations, identified by its smooth dry cap, yellow gills that become freckled with rust spots, and rusty spore print.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Black Tooth

Black Tooth

Toothed

A tough, dark, ground-dwelling toothed fungus with a velvety blue-black cap, a pale rim and grey spines. Unusually for a dark hydnoid, it drops a white spore print.

Spore print · White

Crepidotus crocophyllus

Crepidotus crocophyllus

Gilled

A stalkless fan-shaped wood fungus with a whitish cap flecked with tawny-brown scales and distinctive saffron to orange-yellow gills that age brown. It fruits on decaying hardwood.

Spore print · Brown to cinnamon-brown

Golden Brittlegill

Golden Brittlegill

Gilled

A small, brightly coloured brittlegill with one of the deepest yellow spore prints in the genus. Its cap ranges through gold, apricot, orange and rose, often on a single flush.

Spore print · Deep yellow to ochre

Flame Shield

Flame Shield

Gilled

A rare and vivid shield mushroom with a scarlet to orange cap that fades to yellow, free gills turning pink, and a slender pale stem yellowing at the base. It fruits on rotting hardwood.

Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink

Bearded Fieldcap

Bearded Fieldcap

Gilled

A firm, pale cream fieldcap of grassy places whose cap often cracks in dry weather and hangs shreds of white veil from the margin, giving it a bearded look.

Spore print · Dull brown to snuff brown

Royal Bolete

Royal Bolete

Boletes

A striking butter bolete with a rose-pink to purple-red velvety cap over bright yellow pores and a yellow, finely netted stipe. Flesh yellow with little or no blueing.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Springtime Amanita

Springtime Amanita

Gilled

A spring-fruiting California amanita with a salmon-orange to peach cap, a strongly grooved margin, buff-tinted gills, and a thick sac-like volva. The ring is usually absent.

Spore print · White

Fly Agaric

Fly Agaric

Gilled

The archetypal storybook mushroom: a scarlet or orange cap sprinkled with white warts, standing on a white stem with a skirt-like ring and a bulbous base ringed by concentric scaly girdles.

Spore print · White

Birch Bolete

Birch Bolete

Boletes

A tall, slender bolete with a dull brown cap, off-white pores and a long white stipe roughened by vertical rows of small dark scabers. It grows only with birch.

Spore print · Snuff-brown to ochre-brown

Macro Mushroom

Macro Mushroom

Gilled

One of the largest white meadow Agaricus species, with a thick cracking cap that can exceed 25 cm and an unusually massive, felty ring. A grassland decomposer of long-established, lightly managed pasture.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

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

Yellow Fieldcap

Yellow Fieldcap

Gilled

An extremely fragile, short-lived agaric whose slimy egg-yolk yellow cap expands, fades to grey and collapses within a day, leaving a rusty ochre spore print.

Spore print · Rusty ochre-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

Peeling Oysterling

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

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

Cortinarius rubellus

Cortinarius rubellus

Gilled

A slender foxy-orange webcap of mossy conifer forest, recognised by its sharply umbonate fibrillose cap, thick widely spaced rusty gills and pale yellow bands on the stipe.

Spore print · Rusty brown

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

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

Egghead Mottlegill

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