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 Dog Vomit Slime Mold

Dog Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A slim, delicate stinkhorn whose tapering pale stalk ends in an orange tip smeared with dark spore slime. It has no separate cap, which distinguishes it from the larger Phallus species.

Spore print · Olive-brown (spores in the slimy gleba)

Dog Lichen

Dog Lichen

Other Fungi

A large foliose lichen with broad grey-brown lobes, a downy upper surface, and a white veined underside bearing long shaggy rhizines.

Spore print · Not applicable

Elegant Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A slender, unbranched stinkhorn that rises from a white egg as a tapering orange-to-pink spike, its upper third coated in dark olive slime. Common in mulched beds and rich leaf litter across eastern North America.

Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)

Devil's Dipstick

Devil's Dipstick

Stinkhorns

A slim, tapering, orange to pinkish stinkhorn with no distinct cap, its pointed upper third coated in dark olive spore slime. It rises from a white egg in mulch and rotting hardwood debris.

Spore print · Not applicable

Bolete Eater

Bolete Eater

Other Fungi

A parasitic fungus that engulfs boletes in a felty white coat which ripens to bright golden yellow, distorting the host until its pores and stipe are barely recognisable.

Spore print · Not applicable; golden-yellow powdery spore mass

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

Dripping Bonnet

Gilled

A minute pale bonnet whose thin stem is sheathed in a thick, glassy layer of slime far wider than the stalk itself. It fruits on twigs, bramble stems and fallen plant debris.

Spore print · White

Porcelain Fungus

Gilled

Glistening white, almost translucent caps coated in thick slime, clustered high on dead and dying beech, with a distinct ring on the slender white stem.

Spore print · White

Red Cage

Stinkhorns

A startling stinkhorn that hatches from a whitish egg as a hollow, spherical cage of coral-red spongy arms, with dark olive spore slime lining the inner faces of the mesh.

Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)

Devil's Fingers

Stinkhorns

A stinkhorn that hatches from a pale egg and unfurls four to eight scarlet arms, initially joined at the tips and then splayed outward, blotched inside with dark olive spore slime.

Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)

Anemone Stinkhorn

Anemone Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A scarlet stinkhorn that hatches from a white egg into a starfish-like ring of forked arms surrounding a disc of dark, fly-attracting slime.

Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)

Stalked Lattice Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A tall stinkhorn with a slender whitish stalk carrying a globose, orange-red latticed head whose mesh spaces are filled with dark olive spore slime.

Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)

Starfish Fungus

Stinkhorns

A stinkhorn shaped like a sea anemone: a hollow pale stalk expands into a red disc fringed with forked arms, with dark olive spore slime pooled in the centre.

Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)

Lantern Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

Recognisable by its distinctly ribbed, angular stalk that ends in a cluster of short arms fused into a lantern-like point, with dark spore slime on the inner arm faces.

Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)

Bamboo Fungus

Bamboo Fungus

Stinkhorns

A tropical stinkhorn whose white spongy stalk carries a pitted, slime-covered conical head and, beneath it, a spectacular lacy net that hangs down like a skirt. It erupts from a soft white egg in bamboo litter.

Spore print · Not applicable — olive-brown spore slime

Columned Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A warm-climate stinkhorn built from two to five thick orange columns that are free at the base and joined in an arch at the top, with dark spore slime on the inner faces of the arch.

Spore print · Not applicable (olive-brown gleba)

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)

Common Stinkhorn

Common Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A white hollow spongy stalk topped by a thimble-shaped, deeply pitted head coated in olive-green spore slime, emerging from a partly buried white egg. Its powerful odour attracts flies long before it is seen.

Spore print · Olive-brown (in gleba slime)

Dune Stinkhorn

Stinkhorns

A stinkhorn of sand dunes and light soils, rising from a distinctly violet to pinkish-lilac egg on pink cords. The white stalk carries a pitted, honeycombed head coated in olive spore slime.

Spore print · Olive-brown (spores in the slimy gleba)

Red Cage Fungus

Stinkhorns

A stinkhorn that emerges from a white egg as a hollow, red, net-like sphere, its inner arms smeared with olive-brown spore slime. It is common in mulched garden beds and disturbed ground in warm-temperate regions.

Spore print · Not applicable

Beech Milkcap

Beech Milkcap

Gilled

An abundant beechwood milkcap with a slimy olive-grey cap patterned with dark, droplet-like concentric spots. Its copious white latex dries grey on the gills.

Spore print · White to pale cream

Northern Milkcap

Gilled

A large, greasy grey-violet milkcap of northern birch and spruce forests, with white latex that dries greyish or greenish on the pale gills. It is one of the most abundant Lactarius species in Fennoscandia and the boreal belt.

Spore print · Pale cream to pale yellow

Grey Milkcap

Grey Milkcap

Gilled

A thin-fleshed lilac-grey milkcap of damp birch woods whose white latex dries grey-green on the gills. The greasy, smooth cap and grey-staining pale gills are its key marks.

Spore print · Pale cream

Scarletina Bolete

Scarletina Bolete

Boletes

A stout, dark-capped bolete with blood-red pores and a yellow stipe peppered with fine red dots, whose lemon flesh turns instantly inky blue when cut.

Spore print · Olive-brown