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 Brown Roll-rim

Juniper-Hawthorn Rust

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

Freckle Pelt Lichen

Freckle Pelt Lichen

Other Fungi

A broad-lobed pelt lichen that turns vivid green when wet and is speckled with dark brown, wart-like cephalodia scattered across its surface.

Spore print · Not applicable

Hazel Bolete

Hazel Bolete

Boletes

A scaber stalk of hazel and hornbeam with a distinctly wrinkled, pitted olive-brown cap and white flesh that darkens through pink to near black when cut.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

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

Copper Brittlegill

Copper Brittlegill

Gilled

A sturdy orange-brown brittlegill of northern pine woods whose white flesh and stipe turn ash-grey and finally blackish as the fruiting body ages.

Spore print · Pale ochre

Winter Chanterelle

Winter Chanterelle

Gilled

A slender brown funnel-shaped chanterelle with shallow grey-lilac forking ridges and a hollow yellow stem, fruiting in mossy conifer woodland late in the season.

Spore print · White to pale cream

Summer Bolete

Summer Bolete

Boletes

An early-season relative of the porcini with a dry, velvety, often crazed brown cap and a pale net covering the whole length of the stipe. Flesh is white and unchanging.

Spore print · Olive-brown

Slate Bolete

Slate Bolete

Boletes

A firm, slate-grey to grey-brown scaber stalk of poplars, with a long rooting stem, dark scabers, and cut flesh that reddens then turns blue-green at the base.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

Pinecone Cap

Pinecone Cap

Gilled

A slender spring mushroom arising from buried pine cones, with a small pale brown cap, whitish widely spaced gills, and a long tawny rooting stem.

Spore print · White

Willow Bracket

Willow Bracket

Polypores

A rock-hard perennial hoof on willow and other broadleaves, grey to black and deeply cracked above with a rusty brown pore surface and layered annual tubes inside.

Spore print · White

Felt-ringed Agaricus

Felt-ringed Agaricus

Gilled

A stout western North American Agaricus recognised by its thick felty ring with cottony patches, pinkish-brown fibrillose cap and yellow-staining bulbous base.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Craterellus lutescens

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

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

Bleeding Fairy Helmet

Bleeding Fairy Helmet

Gilled

A delicate reddish-brown bonnet that exudes dark blood-red latex from its hollow stipe when broken, growing in tight clusters on rotting hardwood.

Spore print · White

Common Bunt

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)

Black-staining Polypore

Black-staining Polypore

Polypores

A large clustered rosette of grey-brown fans at the foot of hardwood trees whose white pore surface and pale flesh blacken within minutes of being touched.

Spore print · White

Banded Mottlegill

Banded Mottlegill

Gilled

A widespread mottlegill of compost heaps and manured ground, recognised by a hygrophanous reddish-brown cap that dries with a darker band around the margin and a jet-black spore print.

Spore print · Black

Shaggy Parasol

Shaggy Parasol

Gilled

A stout, heavily shaggy relative of the Parasol Mushroom with a smooth unbanded stem, a bulbous base and pale flesh that stains saffron then dull reddish brown where it is cut.

Spore print · White

Poplar Fieldcap

Poplar Fieldcap

Gilled

A clustering trunk-dwelling mushroom with a tan cap that wrinkles and cracks with age, cinnamon-brown gills, and a tough pale stem carrying a persistent spore-stained ring.

Spore print · Dull tobacco brown

Gilled Bolete

Gilled Bolete

Boletes

A bolete that wears gills instead of pores: thick, widely spaced, bright golden-yellow blades running down the stipe beneath a dry velvety brown cap.

Spore print · Olive-yellow to yellowish-brown

Button Mushroom

Button Mushroom

Gilled

A stocky white or tan Agaricus with free gills that run from pale pink through cocoa to blackish brown, a simple membranous ring, and no volva at the stem base.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Gypsy Mushroom

Gypsy Mushroom

Gilled

A sturdy ochre mushroom with a radially wrinkled cap dusted silvery-white over the centre, rusty-brown gills, and the unusual distinction of a true membranous ring on a webcap.

Spore print · Rusty ochre-brown

Resinous Polypore

Resinous Polypore

Polypores

A broad, soft, velvety bracket that is reddish brown with a thick white growing edge, exudes amber droplets when young, and has a white pore surface that bruises brownish.

Spore print · White

Spring Brittlestem

Spring Brittlestem

Gilled

An early-season brittlestem with a smooth date-brown cap that dries to greyish buff and a slender, fragile white stem. It appears in groups on rich soil under broadleaved trees.

Spore print · Dark brown