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 Golden Teacher

Golden Oyster

Golden Oyster

Gilled

A clustered oyster mushroom with bright lemon to golden-yellow caps that flatten into shallow funnels, with white decurrent gills on fused off-centre stalks.

Spore print · White to pale lilac-grey

Golden Cup

Cups & Discs

A vivid orange spring cup fungus of conifer duff whose margins and bruised areas stain a distinctive blue-green. It is one of the earliest fungi to appear at the edge of retreating snow.

Spore print · White

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

Golden Trumpet

Gilled

A tiny tawny-orange mushroom with decurrent veined gills and a wiry dark stem, fruiting in dense swarms on mossy conifer logs and stumps.

Spore print · Pale buff to white

Golden Scalycap

Gilled

A striking golden-orange Pholiota that fruits from wounds high on broadleaf trunks, with a glutinous cap bearing flattened darker scales and a rusty spore print.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Golden Scruffy Collybia

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

Pacific Golden Chanterelle

Gilled

The large golden funnel-capped chanterelle of Pacific Northwest conifer forests, with blunt forking ridges instead of true gills running down a tapering stem. Its cap surface is finely fibrillose, often with a pinkish or brownish cast.

Spore print · Pale yellow to cream

Golden Waxcap

Golden Waxcap

Gilled

A clean lemon to golden-yellow waxcap with a viscid smooth cap and a slightly greasy yellow stem, one of the commonest and brightest species in autumn turf.

Spore print · White

Golden Brittlegill

Golden Brittlegill

Gilled

A small, brightly coloured brittlegill with one of the deepest yellow spore prints in the genus. Its cap ranges through gold, apricot, orange and rose, often on a single flush.

Spore print · Deep yellow to ochre

Golden Ear

Jellies

A deep golden-orange jelly fungus forming firm, ear- or petal-shaped lobes on hardwood, always accompanied by the hairy brackets of Stereum hirsutum, the host it parasitises.

Spore print · White

Golden Coral

Corals & Clubs

A large, richly golden branched coral rising from a short whitish trunk, fruiting from soil in broadleaf woodland. Branch and tip colour is nearly uniform, without pink or salmon tones.

Spore print · Pale ochre-yellow

Golden Bootleg

Gilled

A large and striking golden-ochre mushroom of nutrient-rich waste ground, coated in a fine granular powder and carrying a big flaring ring on a sheathed, boot-like stem.

Spore print · Ochre-brown

Golden Chanterelle

Golden Chanterelle

Gilled

A golden-yellow funnel-shaped fungus with blunt forking ridges instead of true gills running down a solid tapering stem, and a distinctive apricot-like scent.

Spore print · Pale yellow to cream

Golden-Eye Lichen

Golden-Eye Lichen

Other Fungi

A small, shrubby orange lichen on twigs, distinguished by bright orange apothecia rimmed with hair-like cilia that give it an eyelashed, eye-like look.

Spore print · Not applicable

California Golden Chanterelle

Gilled

The largest chanterelle known, producing massive golden-orange fruit bodies under California's coast live oaks. Its sheer bulk, thick white flesh and blunt forking ridges make it unmistakable in its range.

Spore print · Pale yellow to cream

Golden Oyster Mushroom

Gilled

A vivid golden-yellow oyster mushroom that grows in dense bouquets from dead hardwood, its thin funnel-shaped caps fading to pale ochre as they age.

Spore print · White to pale lilac

Golden-edge Bonnet

Gilled

A small conifer-litter bonnet whose dull olive-brown cap hides gills bordered with brilliant orange edges. The orange tone is repeated on the stipe and its basal hairs.

Spore print · White

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

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

Smooth Chanterelle

Gilled

A bright orange-yellow chanterelle whose underside is almost completely smooth, with only faint wrinkles instead of the usual forking ridges. It is a common summer fungus of eastern oak woodlands.

Spore print · Pale yellow to yellowish-cream

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

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

Orange Mosscap

Gilled

A minute orange mushroom that dots mossy lawns and banks, with a navel-centred cap, deeply decurrent white gills, and a hair-thin stem.

Spore print · White

Orange Mycena

Gilled

A vividly orange, sticky-capped bonnet that grows in dense tufts on hardwood logs and is instantly recognised by the bright orange edges of its otherwise pale gills.

Spore print · White