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 “Possibly a Marasmius or similar small gilled mushroom”
Velvet Bolete
Boletes
A stout pine bolete with a dry, velvety orange-ochre cap and small dark cinnamon pores. The pale yellow flesh usually flushes blue where cut.
Spore print · Olive-brown
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
Crown-tipped Coral
Corals & Clubs
A wood-inhabiting coral whose every branch ends in a small crown or cup ringed with tiny points, growing in rows along rotting hardwood logs.
Spore print · White
Golden-Eye Lichen
Other Fungi
A small, shrubby orange lichen on twigs, distinguished by bright orange apothecia rimmed with hair-like cilia that give it an eyelashed, eye-like look.
Spore print · Not applicable
Stinky Squid
Stinkhorns
A small stinkhorn with three or four tapering orange arms that rise from a short pale stalk and meet at the top, dark olive spore slime coating their inner faces.
Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)
Depressed Hedgehog
Toothed
A small toothed fungus with an orange-tan cap dimpled at the centre and an underside of crowded brittle spines. It grows in sphagnum and moss beds under conifers.
Spore print · White
Scarlet Bonnet
Gilled
A small bonnet with a coral-pink to scarlet conical cap that fades towards orange-pink with age, carried on a slender pale stem. It fruits among mosses, grasses and conifer needles.
Spore print · White
Birch Brittlegill
Gilled
A small, delicate brittlegill with a pale rosy or almost white cap, found only with birch on wet acid ground. Its thin flesh and grooved margin make it one of the frailest of the genus.
Spore print · White
Ruby Bolete
Boletes
A small, brilliantly red-capped bolete of parks and grassy woodland edges, recognised by yellow pores that bruise blue and tiny carrot-orange dots in the stem base.
Spore print · Olive-brown
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
The Prince
Gilled
One of the largest field mushrooms, with a squarish young cap patterned in fine golden-brown fibrous scales, a big pendulous ring and flesh that yellows slowly where handled. It smells strongly of almonds.
Spore print · Dark brown
Veiled Polypore
Polypores
A small, hard, pale globe or hoof attached to dead conifer bark, unique among polypores in having its pore surface sealed inside a membranous veil pierced by a single small opening.
Spore print · White
Crowded Parchment
Crusts
Dense masses of small, thin, orange-tan fans that fuse along their edges to sheathe fallen hardwood twigs and branches. The underside is smooth and unbroken, with no pores or wrinkles.
Spore print · White
Hairy Earthtongue
Other Fungi
A small black club or tongue standing upright in mossy turf, its whole surface matt and velvety from projecting bristles. It is a classic indicator of old unimproved waxcap grassland.
Spore print · Brown-black
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
Yellow Patches
Gilled
A small to medium eastern North American amanita with a glossy orange-yellow cap sprinkled with bright chrome-yellow flakes of universal veil. The same yellow material dusts the ring and the swollen stem base.
Spore print · White
Wet Rot Fungus
Crusts
A thin, closely attached crust that starts creamy white and matures to olive- or umber-brown, its surface roughened with small warts and lumps. It grows on persistently wet dead wood outdoors and on damp timber indoors.
Spore print · Olive-brown
Jelly Rot
Crusts
A soft, gelatinous crust that turns its upper edge outward into small white hairy shelves, with a shocking orange-pink wrinkled and ridged spore surface beneath. It sprawls in overlapping sheets across fallen logs in late autumn.
Spore print · White
Gooseberry Brittlegill
Gilled
A slender purple-wine brittlegill of spruce plantations, recognised by its purple-flushed stipe, pale cream gills and a distinct fruity gooseberry smell.
Spore print · Pale cream
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
Lilac Bonnet
Gilled
A litter-dwelling bonnet with a lilac, violet or pinkish cap, broad widely spaced gills and a strong radish smell. Colour varies widely, so the odour and gill structure matter more than the shade.
Spore print · White
Geranium Brittlegill
Gilled
A beech-wood brittlegill in which cap, gills and stipe are all the same pale straw-honey colour, identified by that uniformity together with a strong smell of geranium leaves.
Spore print · Pale cream
Goatcheese Webcap
Gilled
A lilac-blue webcap of mossy spruce forest with bluish young gills, whitish-lilac flesh and an unusually strong, far-carrying smell.
Spore print · Rusty brown
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