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 Birch Polypore

Birch Polypore

Birch Polypore

Polypores

A smooth, pale, rubbery bracket that grows almost exclusively on birch, recognised by its rounded kidney shape, thick inrolled margin and fine white pore surface.

Spore print · White

Birch Mazegill

Birch Mazegill

Polypores

A tough zoned bracket that looks like a Trametes from above but carries genuine radiating gill plates on its underside instead of pores.

Spore print · White

Birch Brittlegill

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

Dyer's Polypore

Dyer's Polypore

Polypores

A large, velvety, concentrically zoned rosette at the foot of conifers, rusty brown at the centre with a vivid yellow growing edge and olive-yellow pores that bruise dark brown.

Spore print · White to pale yellow

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

Rooting Polypore

Polypores

A tall stalked polypore that appears to grow from bare ground, its blackish scurfy stem tapering into a long root-like extension that reaches buried hardwood below.

Spore print · White

Tuberous Polypore

Polypores

A stout stalked polypore with a scaly ochre cap, fringed margin and large white decurrent pores, often arising from a hard, stone-like underground mass of soil-bound mycelium.

Spore print · White

Winter Polypore

Polypores

A small, tough, centrally stalked polypore with a dull grey-brown velvety cap and fine white decurrent pores, notable for fruiting in the cold months when little else is out.

Spore print · White

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

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

Birch Milkcap

Birch Milkcap

Gilled

A small tawny orange-brown birch associate with a matt, slightly wrinkled cap and a small pointed umbo. Its scanty white latex slowly turns yellow when smeared on a white tissue.

Spore print · Pale cream

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

Gilled Polypore

Polypores

A tough, zoned, hairy bracket whose underside is made of thick radiating gill-like plates rather than round pores, growing on dead birch and other hardwoods throughout the year.

Spore print · White

Giant Polypore

Giant Polypore

Polypores

A huge overlapping rosette of tan-brown zoned fans at the foot of beech and other broadleaves, with a fine white pore surface that turns black wherever it is touched.

Spore print · White

Cinnabar Polypore

Cinnabar Polypore

Polypores

An unmistakable bracket coloured vivid orange-red throughout, from the smooth upper surface to the fine pore layer beneath.

Spore print · White

Berkeley's Polypore

Berkeley's Polypore

Polypores

One of the largest fungi of eastern North American forests, forming a massive rosette of thick cream to tan fans with coarse angular pores at the base of oaks.

Spore print · White

Weeping Polypore

Polypores

A massive lumpy bracket at the foot of oak trees, unmistakable when young for the beads of amber liquid that stand all over its buff upper surface.

Spore print · Whitish to pale yellow

Spring Polypore

Polypores

A small centrally stalked polypore with a scaly tan cap edged in coarse hairs and unusually large angular white pores that run down the stem.

Spore print · White

Orange Birch Bolete

Orange Birch Bolete

Boletes

A tall, striking bolete with a bright orange felty cap, a white stipe studded with blackish scabers, and white flesh that turns pinkish-grey and then near-black when cut. It grows only with birch.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

White Birch Bolete

Boletes

A ghostly pale scaber stalk of wet birch bogs, almost white overall with soft watery flesh and a faint greenish tinge to the cap and stem base.

Spore print · Pale snuff-brown

Blue Cheese Polypore

Blue Cheese Polypore

Polypores

A small, soft, hairy white bracket that develops distinct blue-grey tints, especially on the pore surface and where bruised, growing in tiers on dead conifer wood.

Spore print · Pale bluish white

Hexagonal-pored Polypore

Hexagonal-pored Polypore

Polypores

A thin, orange-tinted polypore of fallen hardwood twigs whose underside is a striking honeycomb of very large, radially stretched hexagonal pores.

Spore print · White

Cracked Cap Polypore

Cracked Cap Polypore

Polypores

A hard perennial conk almost restricted to black locust, its blackened upper crust splitting into deep blocky cracks above a rich rusty brown pore surface.

Spore print · Pale yellowish to whitish

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