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 Wood Ear

Pearly Webcap

Pearly Webcap

Gilled

A pale silvery-violet webcap of broadleaf woodland with a silky, pearl-sheened cap and a club-shaped stipe wrapped in a whitish veil sheath.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Olive Shaggy Parasol

Olive Shaggy Parasol

Gilled

The woodland member of the shaggy parasol group, its cap a muted olive-grey to greyish-brown with felty scales that barely stand out against the background.

Spore print · White

Tawny Funnel

Tawny Funnel

Gilled

A rusty orange-brown funnel that fruits in dense crowded troops and rings in woodland litter, with very crowded decurrent gills that age to the cap colour.

Spore print · Pale cream

Trooping Funnel

Trooping Funnel

Gilled

A tall, large pale buff funnel that forms sweeping troops and fairy rings along woodland edges, keeping a distinct central bump in the funnel.

Spore print · White

Violet Webcap

Violet Webcap

Gilled

A large, sombre, dark violet woodland mushroom with a dry felty cap, violet gills that rust over with maturity, and a cobwebby veil linking cap margin to stem.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Ochre Brittlegill

Ochre Brittlegill

Gilled

One of the most abundant woodland brittlegills, with a plain dull ochre-yellow cap, pale cream gills and a white stipe that greys distinctly with age and wet weather.

Spore print · Pale cream

Cinnamon Webcap

Cinnamon Webcap

Gilled

A small slender webcap with a silky cinnamon-brown cap, crowded saffron to golden-yellow gills and a yellow-olive stipe, fruiting in mossy conifer woodland.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Bloody Milkcap

Bloody Milkcap

Gilled

A pine-associated milkcap of southern limestone woodland whose flesh releases dark blood-red latex the instant it is cut, with no orange phase at all.

Spore print · Pale cream to buff

Bitter Bolete

Bitter Bolete

Boletes

A robust brown-capped bolete with white pores that flush pink with age and a pale stipe carrying a bold dark brown network. Widespread in conifer and mixed woodland.

Spore print · Pinkish-brown

Grey Coral

Grey Coral

Corals & Clubs

A small, ash-grey to lilac-grey branched coral of woodland soil, with rather thick, blunt-tipped branches and a white spore print.

Spore print · White

Inky Mushroom

Inky Mushroom

Gilled

A grey-scaled woodland Agaricus with a dark-centred cap, a chrome-yellow staining stipe base and a distinctly inky odour.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Splendid Webcap

Splendid Webcap

Gilled

A vivid sulphur- to chrome-yellow webcap with a viscid cap, yellow gills and a sharply rimmed bulbous stem base. It grows with beech on calcareous soils in warm southern woodland.

Spore print · Rusty brown

White Coral

White Coral

Corals & Clubs

A delicate, chalk-white coral that branches repeatedly into fine upright arms with blunt tips. Grows from soil and litter in woodland and mossy clearings.

Spore print · White

Soapy Knight

Soapy Knight

Gilled

A highly variable woodland knight with a greenish-grey cap, widely spaced notched gills and flesh that flushes pinkish where cut, especially in the stipe base.

Spore print · White

Ruby Bolete

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

Pear Fibrecap

Pear Fibrecap

Gilled

A pale ochre fibrecap that flushes rusty red where handled and carries a strong sweet scent of ripe pears. A robust species of broadleaf woodland on richer soils.

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

Flat-topped Agaricus

Flat-topped Agaricus

Gilled

A North American woodland Agaricus with a characteristically flat-topped, grey-scaled cap, a bulbous stipe base that flushes chrome-yellow and a sharp inky odour.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Hairy Rubber Cup

Hairy Rubber Cup

Cups & Discs

A tough, rubbery goblet with a smooth reddish-brown disc set inside a blackish, densely bristly cup. Its gelatinous-rubbery texture is unlike that of any other brown woodland cup.

Spore print · White

Hebeloma crustuliniforme

Hebeloma crustuliniforme

Gilled

A pale clay-coloured woodland mushroom with crowded brown-maturing gills whose edges bead with droplets in humid weather, and a strong radish-like odour.

Spore print · Snuff-brown

Cortinarius orellanus

Cortinarius orellanus

Gilled

A medium-sized tawny webcap of oak and beech woodland with a dry, finely scaly convex cap, thick distant cinnamon gills and a tapering yellow-brown stipe without veil belts.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Alder Scalycap

Alder Scalycap

Gilled

A tufted lemon-yellow Pholiota of wet woodland that grows on alder and birch stumps, with a smooth slightly sticky cap, sweetish scent and clay-brown spore print.

Spore print · Clay-brown to rust-brown

Cat Dapperling

Cat Dapperling

Gilled

A small conifer-woodland dapperling with a starkly two-toned cap: near-black scales scattered over a white ground around a dark disc, above a slender stem with a distinct dark-edged ring.

Spore print · White

Aniseed Funnel

Aniseed Funnel

Gilled

An unmistakable woodland funnel with a soft blue-green cap and a powerful aniseed scent, growing scattered through autumn leaf litter under broadleaf trees.

Spore print · Pale cream to very pale pink