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 “Ink cap mushroom (general)”
Velvet Shield
Gilled
A handsome dark shield mushroom with a network of raised brown veins and scales across the cap and gills edged in a distinct dark brown fringe. It grows on decaying hardwood.
Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink
Common Stump Brittlestem
Gilled
A densely tufted stump mushroom with a date-brown cap that dries pale from the centre outward, brittle hollow white stems, and dark purple-brown spores.
Spore print · Dark purple-brown
Scurfy Twiglet
Gilled
A small tawny-brown mushroom of woodchip beds and fallen twigs, recognised by the whitish scurfy veil flecks along its cap margin and its strongly hygrophanous, fading cap.
Spore print · Pale ochre-brown
Dingy Twiglet
Gilled
A small, sombre olive-brown woodland mushroom with a finely velvety cap and a pale frosted gill edge, fruiting on fallen deciduous branches.
Spore print · Olive-brown to snuff brown
Pluteus thomsonii
Gilled
A small grey-brown shield mushroom whose cap is crossed by a conspicuous network of raised pale veins, with fine ridges continuing onto the stem. It grows on decaying hardwood.
Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink
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
Powdery Piggyback
Gilled
A small parasitic mushroom that grows on decaying blackening brittlegills, its rounded white cap soon breaking into a brown powdery mass of asexual spores.
Spore print · White, rarely produced
Umbrella Polypore
Polypores
A large branched cluster bearing dozens of small circular grey-brown caps, each with its own central stalk, growing from an underground tuber near hardwood roots.
Spore print · White
Scaly Rustgill
Gilled
A small to medium tawny-yellow woodland mushroom of conifer debris, with a finely scaly cap, yellow gills that rust with age, and a bright rusty spore print.
Spore print · Rusty orange-brown
Wrinkled Peach
Gilled
An unmistakable rubbery-fleshed mushroom whose apricot to salmon cap is embossed with a raised network of pale ridges, growing on dead elm and other decaying hardwood.
Spore print · Pink
Scaly Shield
Gilled
A large pale shield mushroom whose whitish cap carries brown fibrillose scales over the centre, with free gills flushing pink and a stout ringless stem. It favours sawdust and mulch.
Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink
Pluteus admirabilis
Gilled
A very small, delicate golden-yellow shield mushroom with a wrinkled cap centre, a strongly lined margin and free gills that flush pink. It is common on decaying hardwood in eastern North America.
Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink
Lion Shield
Gilled
A slender golden-yellow shield mushroom with a velvety wrinkled cap centre, a finely lined margin and free gills that flush pink. It fruits on decaying deciduous wood.
Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink
Golden Scruffy Collybia
Gilled
A small, brilliant orange-yellow woodland mushroom whose cap is studded with pointed, granular scales, contrasting with widely spaced white gills on a shaggy yellow stalk.
Spore print · White
White Dapperling
Gilled
A clean white grassland mushroom with a smooth unscaled cap, free gills that flush pale pink with age, a movable ring and a slightly swollen base without any sac.
Spore print · White to faintly pinkish
Goldleaf Shield
Gilled
A small shield mushroom recognised by the contrast between its wrinkled brown cap and its bright chrome-yellow stem. It fruits on decaying hardwood twigs and buried debris.
Spore print · Pink to salmon-pink
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
Spotted Toughshank
Gilled
A firm, long-stemmed woodland mushroom whose cream cap and crowded pale gills develop scattered rust-coloured blotches as it ages. Common in conifer plantations and on heathland litter.
Spore print · Pale pinkish cream
Sheathed Woodtuft
Gilled
A tufted stump mushroom whose hygrophanous cap dries in two tones from the centre out, above a narrow ring and a stem clad below in coarse dark upturned scales.
Spore print · Ochre-brown to cinnamon brown
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
Velvet Rollrim
Gilled
A robust brown mushroom of conifer stumps with a suede-textured inrolled cap, decurrent forking gills that peel away from the flesh, and a thick stem clad in dark brown-black velvet.
Spore print · Yellowish-brown
Russet Toughshank
Gilled
One of the commonest litter mushrooms of oak woods: a smooth russet-brown cap on a slim, tough, hollow stem, fruiting in troops for much of the year.
Spore print · White to pale cream
Conical Brittlestem
Gilled
A strikingly tall, thin-stemmed mushroom with a narrow conical cap that dries from dark date-brown to pale tan, its surface set with fine erect bristles visible under a lens.
Spore print · Blackish brown
Weeping Widow
Gilled
A shaggy tawny-brown grassland mushroom whose blackening gills bead with dark droplets in humid weather. The hairy cap, veil-fringed margin and near-black spore print make it distinctive.
Spore print · Very dark brown to blackish